AMONG  THE 
POND  PEOPLE 

BY 

CLARA  J),  PIERS  ON 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


Frontispiece 


"BADDY-BADDY!" 


Page  142 


AMONG  THE  POND  PEOPLE 


CLARA  DILLINGHAM  PIERSON 

Author  of  "Among  the  Meadow  People,"  "  Forest  People,"  etc. 

Illustrated  by  F.  C.  GORDON      /  <^ 


m  \ 


NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  DUTTON  AND  COMPANY 

31    WEST    TWENTY-THIRD    STREET 


COPYRIGHT,  1901 

BY 
E.  P.  BUTTON  &  CO. 


Ube  Iknfcfeerbocfeer  press,  Hew  l£orfc 


TO 

JOHN  W.  S.  PIERSON 

THIS    BOOK    IS    AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED 


M350112 


DEAR  LITTLE  FRIENDS  :  —  When  the 
ten  Polliwogs  came  to  spend  a  day  with 
me,  some  two  years  ago,  I  promised  to 
tell  you  stories  of  how  they  and  their 
neighbors  live  in  the  pond.  I  wanted  to 
tell  the  stories  at  once,  but  this  is  a  busy 
world  and  story-telling  is  only  play,  so 
there  were  many  things  to  be  done  before 
I  could  sit  down  to  my  desk  and  hold  my 
pen  while  the  stories  slid  out  of  it  onto 
paper.  I  wonder  where  all  my  ten  Polli- 
wogs are  now  ! 

One  cannot  come  to  know  pond  people 
quite  so  well  as  those  who  live  in  the  for- 
est or  in  the  meadow,  yet  down  in  the  shin- 
ing water  they  live  and  build  their  homes 
and  learn  much  that  they  need  to  know. 
And  wherever  people  are  living,  and 
working,  and  playing,  there  are  stories 


VI 


Preface 


to  be  found.  The  pond  people  cannot 
be  well  or  happy  long  away  from  the 
water,  and  you  can  only  come  to  know 
them  by  watching  the  ponds  and  brooks. 
If  you  do  that  and  are  very  quiet,  the 
Minnows  will  swim  to  where  you  are,  the 
Mud  Turtles  will  waddle  out  on  the  logs 
in  the  sunshine,  and  you  may  even  see  a 
Crayfish  walking  backward  along  the  sand. 

But  if  you  should  see  a  very  large,  black 
bug  with  fore  legs  which  open  and  shut  like 
jack-knives  —  then  keep  away  from  him, 
for  that  is  Belostoma.  Some  time  you 
may  see  him  under  the  electric  lights  in 
the  city,  for  he  likes  to  sprawl  around 
there,  and  you  can  look  at  him  on  land, 
but  let  him  alone. 

Remember  that  the  Dragon-Flies  and 
many  of  their  friends  who  seem  to  do 
nothing  but  play  in  the  sunshine,  have 
lived  long  in  the  dusky  pond,  and  that 
this  life  in  the  air  comes  only  after  a  long 
time  of  getting  ready.  Remember  that 


Preface  vii 

if  you  pick  up  a  Turtle  or  catch  Min- 
nows in  a  net,  you  must  not  leave  the 
Turtle  on  his  back  or  keep  any  water- 
breathing  people,  like  the  Minnows,  in 
the  air.  Watch  them  for  a  little  while 
and  then  let  them  go  free. 

And  then  remember,  be  sure  to  re- 
member, this  :  that  you  are  not  to  get 
acquainted  with  the  pond  people  by  tum- 
bling into  the  water  or  by  going  into  it 
with  your  shoes  and  stockings  on.  If 
you  do  that,  your  mothers  will  say, 
"  We  wish  that  Mrs.  Pierson  had  never 
written  about  the  pond  people."  And 
if  they  should  say  that,  just  think  how 
I  would  feel  ! 

Your  friend, 
CLARA  DILLINGHAM  PIERSON. 

STANTON,  MICHIGAN, 
December  22,  1900 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

THE   BIGGEST    FROG    AWAKENS           ...  I 

THE    DANCE   OF    THE   SAND-HILL    CRANES           .  13 
THE   YOUNG    MINNOW    WHO    WOULD    NOT    EAT 

WHEN    HE   SHOULD 23 

THE    STICKLEBACK    FATHER    ....  33 
THE    CARELESS    CADDIS    WORM            ...  45 
THE    TADPOLE    WHO    WANTED    TO    BE  GROWN- 
UP      58 

THE    RUNAWAY    WATER    SPIDERS     ...  72 
THE    SLOW    LITTLE    MUD    TURTLE    ...  83 
THE    DRAGON-FLY    CHILDREN    AND    THE  SNAP- 
PING   TURTLE 97 

THE   SNAPPY    SNAPPING    TURTLE      .            .            .  106 

THE    CLEVER    WATER-ADDER               .             .             .  IIQ 

THE    GOOD    LITTLE    CRANES    WHO    WERE    BAD  1 29 

THE   OLDEST    DRAGON-FLY    NYMPH              .            .  143 
ix 


X 


Contents 


THE   EELS     MOVING-NIGHT       . 

THE    CRAYFISH    MOTHER 

TWO    LITTLE   CRAYFISHES   QUARREL 

THE   LUCKY    MINK 

THE    PLAYFUL    MUSKRATS 


157 
169 

I78 

l87 
200 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

"BADDY-BADDY!"       .         .         Frontispiece  142 

"THEN  i  WILL  GO  TOO,"  SAID  HE      .         .  9 
"WHAT    FINE    BIG    MOUTHFULS    YOU    CAN 

TAKE  !  " 19 

THEN  THEY  SWAM  AT  EACH  OTHER  .    .  39 

THE    BIGGEST    FROG    TOLD    THEM    STORIES         .  63 
AS   SOON    AS    HE     GOT     TO     FLOATING     ON     HIS 

BACK 76 

"GOOD     MORNING,"    SAID    SHE;     "l    BELIEVE 

YOU    ARE    MY    CHILDREN"             ...  85 
THERE    WAS  A   GREAT    SPLASHING   AND    DASH- 
ING                117 

SHE    SWAYED    THIS    WAY    AND    THAT         .             .  146 
SHE      WAS      TALKING      WITH       MOTHER       MUD 

TURTLE l6o 

MOTHER    EEL    OPENED    HER    BIG    MOUTH              .  l86 
USED    TO    FOLLOW    HIM    AROUND      .            .            .191 


THE  BIGGEST  FROG  AWAKENS 


T^HE  Biggest  Frog  stretched  the  four 
toes  of  his  right  forefoot.  Then  he 
stretched  the  four  toes  of  his  left  forefoot. 
Next  he  stretched  the  five  toes  of  his  right 
hindfoot.  And  last  of  all  he  stretched 
the  four  toes  of  his  left  hindfoot.  Then 
he  stretched  all  seventeen  toes  at  once. 
He  should  have  had  eighteen  toes  to 
stretch,  like  his  friends  and  neighbors, 
but  something  had  happened  to  the 
eighteenth  one  a  great  many  years  be- 
fore. None  of  the  pond  people  knew 
what  had  happened  to  it,  but  something 
had,  and  when  the  Tadpoles  teased  him 
to  tell  them  what,  he  only  stared  at  them 
with  his  great  eyes  and  said,  "  My  chil- 
dren, that  story  is  too  sad  to  tell." 


2  Among  the  Pond  People 

After  the  Biggest  Frog  had  stretched 
all  his  toes,  he  stretched  his  legs  and 
twitched  his  lips.  He  poked  his  head  out 
of  the  mud  a  very,  very  little  way,  and 
saw  a  Minnow  swimming  past.  "  Good 
day  !  "  said  he.  "  Is  it  time  to  get  up  ?  " 

"  Time  !  "  exclaimed  the  Minnow,  look- 
ing at  him  with  her  mouth  open.  "  I 
should  say  it  was.  Why,  the  watercress 
is  growing  !  " 

Now  every  one  who  lives  in  a  pond 
knows  that  when  the  watercress  begins  to 
grow,  it  is  time  for  all  the  winter  sleepers 
to  awaken.  The  Biggest  Frog  crawled 
out  of  the  mud  and  poked  this  way  and 
that  all  around  the  spot  where  he  had 
spent  the  cold  weather.  "  Wake  up  !  "  he 
said.  "  Wake  up  !  Wake  up  !  "  The  water 
grew  dark  and  cloudy  because  he  kicked  up 
so  much  mud,  but  when  it  began  to  clear 
again  he  saw  the  heads  of  his  friends 
peeping  up  everywhere  out  of  that  part 
of  the  pond  bottom.  Seven  of  them  had 


The  Biggest  Frog  Awakens  3 

huddled  close  to  him  all  winter.  "  Come 
out  ! "  he  cried.  "  The  spring  is  here, 
and  it  is  no  time  for  Frogs  to  be  asleep." 

"  Asleep  !  No  indeed  ! "  exclaimed  his 
sister,  an  elderly  and  hard-working  Frog, 
as  she  swam  to  the  shore  and  crawled 
out  on  it.  She  ate  every  bit  of  food  that 
she  found  on  the  way,  for  neither  she  nor 
any  of  the  others  had  taken  a  mouthful 
since  the  fall  before. 

The  younger  Frogs  followed  through 
the  warmer  shallow  water  until  they  were 
partly  out  of  it.  There  is  always  a  Big- 
gest Frog  in  every  pond.  All  the  young 
Frogs  thought  how  fine  it  would  be  to  be- 
come the  Biggest  Frog  of  even  a  very 
small  puddle,  for  then  they  could  tell  the 
others  what  to  do.  Now  they  looked  at 
their  leader  and  each  said  to  himself, 
u  Perhaps  some  day  I  shall  begin  the 
concert." 

The  Biggest  Frog  found  a  comfortable 
place  and  sat  down.  He  toed  in  with  his 


4  Among  the  Pond  People 

eight  front  toes,  as  well-bred  frogs  do,  and 
all  his  friends  toed  in  with  their  eight 
front  toes.  He  toed  out  with  his  nine 
back  toes,  and  all  his  friends  toed  out  with 
their  ten  back  toes.  One  young  Yellow 
Brown  Frog  said,  "  How  I  wish  I  did  not 
have  that  bothersome  fifth  toe  on  my  left 
hindfoot !  It  is  so  in  the  way  !  Besides, 
there  is  such  a  style  about  having  one's 
hind  feet  different."  He  spoke  just  loud 
enough  for  the  Biggest  Frog  to  hear. 
Any  one  would  know  from  this  remark 
that  he  was  young  and  foolish,  for  when 
people  are  wise  they  know  that  the  most 
beautiful  feet  and  ears  and  bodies  are  just 
the  way  that  they  were  first  made  to  be. 

Now  the  Biggest  Frog  swallowed  a 
great  deal  of  air,  filled  the  sacs  on  each 
side  of  his  neck  with  it,  opened  his  big 
mouth,  and  sang  croakily,  "  Frogs  !  Frogs  ! 
Frogs  !  Frogs  !  Frogs  !  Frogs  !  Frogs  ! 
Frogs ! "  And  all  the  others  sang, 
"  Frogs  !  Frogs  !  Frogs  !  "  as  long  as  he. 


The  Biggest  Frog  Awakens  5 

The  Gulls  heard  it,  and  the  Muskrats 
heard  it,  and  all  were  happy  because 
spring  had  come. 

A  beautiful  young  Green  Brown  Frog, 
who  had  never  felt  grown-up  until  now, 
tried  to  sing  with  the  others,  but  she  had 
not  a  strong  voice,  and  was  glad  enough 
to  stop  and  visit  with  the  Biggest  Frog's 
Sister.  "  Don't  you  wish  we  could  sing 
as  loudly  as  they  can  ?  "  said  she. 

"  No,"  answered  the  Biggest  Frog's 
Sister.  "  I  would  rather  sit  on  the  bank 
and  think  about  my  spring  work.  Work 
first,  you  know,  and  pleasure  afterward  !  " 

"  Oh  !  "  said  the  Green  Brown  Frog. 
"  Then  you  don't  want  to  sing  until  your 
work  is  done  ?  " 

"  You  may  be  very  sure  I  don't  want 
to  sing  then,"  answered  the  older  Frog. 
"  I  am  too  tired.  Besides,  after  the  eggs 
are  laid,  there  is  no  reason  for  wanting  to 
sing." 

"  Why  not  ? "    asked  the  Green  Brown 


6  Among  the  Pond  People 

Frog.  "  I  don't  see  what  difference  that 
makes." 

"  That,"  said  the  older  Frog  wisely,  "  is 
because  you  are  young  and  have  never 
laid  eggs.  The  great  time  for  singing  is 
before  the  eggs  are  laid.  There  is  some 
singing  afterward,  but  that  is  only  be- 
cause people  expect  it  of  us,  and  not 
because  we  have  the  same  wish  to  sing." 
After  she  had  said  all  this,  which  was  a 
great  deal  for  a  Frog  to  say  at  once,  she 
shut  her  big  mouth  and  slid  her  eyelids 
over  her  eyes. 

There  was  another  question  which  the 
Green  Brown  Frog  wanted  very  much  to 
ask,  but  she  had  good  manners  and  knew 
that  it  was  impolite  to  speak  to  any  Frog 
whose  eyes  were  not  open.  So  she 
closed  her  own  eyes  and  tried  to  think 
what  the  answer  would  be.  When  she 
opened  them  again,  the  Biggest  Frog's 
Sister  had  hopped  away,  and  in  her  place 
sat  the  Yellow  Brown  Frog,  the  same 


The  Biggest  Frog  Awakens  7 

handsome  young  fellow  who  had  found 
one  of  his  toes  in  the  way.  It  quite 
startled  her  to  find  him  sitting  so  close 
to  her  and  she  could  n't  think  of 
anything  to  say,  so  she  just  looked  at 
him  with  her  great  beautiful  eyes  and 
toed  in  a  little  more  with  her  front  feet. 
That  made  him  look  at  them  and  see 
how  pretty  they  were,  although  of  course 
this  was  not  the  reason  why  she  had 
moved  them. 

The  Yellow  Brown  Frog  hopped  a  little 
nearer  and  sang  as  loudly  as  he  could, 
"  Frogs  !  Frogs  !  Frogs  !  Frogs  !  Frogs  ! 
Frogs  !  Frogs  !  Frogs  !  "  Then  she  knew 
that  he  was  singing  just  for  her,  and  she 
was  exceedingly  happy.  She  swallowed  air 
very  fast  because  she  seemed  to  be  out 
of  breath  from  thinking  what  she  should 
answer.  She  had  wanted  to  ask  the  Big- 
gest Frog's  Sister  what  she  should  say  if 
any  one  sang  to  her  alone.  She  knew 
that  if  she  wanted  to  get  away  from  him, 


8  Among  the  Pond  People 

all  she  had  to  do  was  to  give  a  great 
jump  and  splash  into  the  water.  She 
did  n't  want  to  go  away,  yet  she  made 
believe  that  she  did,  for  she  hopped  a 
little  farther  from  him. 

He  knew  she  was  only  pretending, 
though,  for  she  had  n't  hopped  more  than 
the  length  of  a  grass-blade.  So  he  fol- 
lowed her  and  kept  on  singing.  Because 
she  knew  that  she  must  say  something, 
she  just  opened  her  mouth  and  sang  the 
first  words  that  she  could  think  of ;  and 
what  she  sang  was,  "  Eggs  !  Eggs  !  Eggs  ! 
Eggs  !  Eggs  !  Eggs  !  Eggs  !  Eggs  ! "  As 
it  happened,  this  was  exactly  what  she 
should  have  sung,  so  he  knew  that  she 
liked  him.  They  stayed  together  for  a 
long,  long  time,  and  he  sang  a  great  deal 
and  very  loudly,  and  she  sang  a  little  and 
very  softly. 

After  a  while  she  remembered  that 
she  was  now  a  fully  grown  Frog  and  had 
spring  work  to  do,  and  she  said  to  him, 


"THEN  i  WILL  GO  TOO,"  SAID  HE. 


Page  9 


The  Biggest  Frog  Awakens  9 

"  I  really  must  lay  some  eggs.  I  am 
going  into  the  water." 

"  Then  I  will  go  too,"  said  he.  And 
they  gave  two  great  leaps  and  came  down 
with  two  great  splashes. 

The  Green  Brown  Frog  laid  eggs  for 
four  days,  and  the  Yellow  Brown  Frog 
stayed  with  her  all  that  time  and  took 
care  of  the  eggs  after  she  had  laid  them. 
They  were  covered  with  a  sort  of  green 
jelly  which  made  them  stick  to  each  other 
as  they  floated  in  little  heaps  on  the 
water.  The  Frogs  thought  that  a  good 
thing,  for  then,  when  the  Tadpoles 
hatched,  each  would  have  playmates 
near. 

One  day,  after  the  eggs  were  all  laid 
and  were  growing  finely  (for  Frogs'  eggs 
grow  until  the  Tadpoles  are  ready  to  eat 
their  way  out),  the  Green  Brown  Frog 
sat  alone  on  the  bank  of  the  pond  and 
the  Biggest  Frog's  Sister  came  to  her. 
She  had  a  queer  smile  around  the  cor- 


io  Among  the  Pond  People 

ners  of  her  mouth.  Frogs  have  excel- 
lent mouths  for  smiling,  but  it  takes  a 
very  broad  smile  to  go  way  across,  so 
when  they  smile  a  little  it  is  only  at  the 
corners.  "  How  are  your  eggs  growing  ?  " 
she  asked. 

"  Oh,"  answered  the  Green  Brown 
Frog  sadly,  "  I  can't  tell  which  ones  they 
are." 

"  That  's  just  like  a  young  Frog,"  said 
the  Biggest  Frog's  Sister.  "Is  there  any 
reason  why  you  should  know  which  ones 
they  are  ?  It  is  n't  as  though  you  were  a 
bird  and  had  to  keep  them  warm,  or  as 
though  you  were  a  Mink  and  had  to  feed 
your  children.  The  sun  will  hatch  them 
and  they  will  feed  themselves  all  they 
need." 

"  I  think,"  said  the  Green  Brown  Frog, 
"that  my  eggs  were  a  little  better  than 
the  rest." 

"Yes,"  croaked  the  Biggest  Frog's  Sis- 
ter, "  every  Frog  thinks  that." 


The  Biggest  Frog  Awakens         1 1 

"  And  I  wanted  to  have  my  own  Tad- 
poles to  look  after,"  sighed  the  Green 
Brown  Frog. 

"  Why  ?"  asked  the  Biggest  Frog's  Sis- 
ter. "  Can't  you  take  any  comfort  with  a 
Tadpole  unless  you  laid  the  egg  from 
which  he  was  hatched  ?  I  never  know 
one  of  my  own  eggs  a  day  after  it  is  laid. 
There  are  such  a  lot  floating  around  that 
they  are  sure  to  get  mixed.  But  I  just 
make  the  best  of  it." 

"  How  ? "  asked  the  Green  Brown 
Frog,  looking  a  little  more  cheerful. 

"  Oh,  I  swim  around  and  look  at  all  the 
eggs,  and  whenever  I  see  any  Tadpoles 
moving  in  them  I  think,  '  Those  may  be 
mine  ! '  As  they  are  hatched  I  help  any 
one  who  needs  it.  Poor  sort  of  Frog  it 
would  be  who  could  n't  like  other  people's 
Tadpoles  ! " 

"  I  believe  I  '11  do  that  way,"  said  the 
Green  Brown  Frog.  "  And  then,"  she 
added,  "  what  a  comfort  it  will  be  if  any 


1 2  Among  the  Pond  People 

of  them  are  cross  or  rude,  to  think,  '  I  'm 
glad  I  don't  know  that  they  are  mine. ' " 

"  Yes,"  said  the  Biggest  Frog's  Sister. 
"  I  often  tell  my  brother  that  I  pity  peo- 
ple who  have  to  bring  up  their  own  chil- 
dren. It  is  much  pleasanter  to  let  them 
grow  up  as  they  do  and  then  adopt  the 
best  ones.  Do  you  know,  I  have  almost 
decided  that  you  are  my  daughter  ?  My 
brother  said  this  morning  that  he  thought 
you  looked  like  me." 


THE    DANCE    OF    THE    SAND- 
HILL  CRANES 


fine  day  in  spring,  a  great  flock  of 
Sand-hill  Cranes  came  from  the 
south.  They  were  flying  high  and  quietly 
because  the  weather  was  bright.  If  it  had 
been  stormy,  or  if  they  had  been  flying 
by  night,  as  they  usually  did,  they  would 
have  stayed  nearer  the  ground,  and  their 
leader  would  have  trumpeted  loudly  to  let 
his  followers  know  which  way  he  was  go- 
ing. They  would  also  have  trumpeted, 
but  more  softly,  to  tell  him  that  they  were 
coming  after. 

They  were  a  fine  company  to  look  upon, 

orderly,  strong,  and  dignified.     Their  long 

necks  were  stretched  out  straight  ahead, 

their  long  legs  straight  behind,  and  they 

13 


14  Among  the  Pond  People 

beat  the  air  with  slow,  regular  strokes  of 
the  strong  wings.  As  they  came  near  the 
pond,  they  flew  lower  and  lower,  until  all 
swept  down  to  the  earth  and  alighted,  tall 
and  stately,  by  the  edge  of  the  water. 

They  had  eaten  nothing  for  several 
days,  and  were  soon  hunting  for  food, 
some  on  land,  and  some  in  the  water,  for 
they  had  stopped  to  feed  and  rest.  Those 
who  hunted  in  the  water,  did  so  very 
quietly.  A  Crane  would  stand  on  one 
leg,  with  his  head  against  his  breast,  so 
quietly  that  one  might  think  him  asleep  : 
but  as  soon  as  anything  eatable  came  near, 
he  would  bend  his  body,  stretch  out  his 
neck,  open  his  long,  slender  bill,  and  swal- 
low it  at  one  gulp.  Then  he  would  seem 
to  fall  asleep  again. 

While  most  of  the  Cranes  were  still 
feeding,  some  of  them  were  stalking 
through  the  woods  and  looking  this  way 
and  that,  flying  up  to  stand  on  a  tree,  and 
then  flying  down  to  stand  on  the  ground. 


The  Dance  of  the  Sand-Hill  Cranes  15 

They  were  those  who  thought  of  staying 
there  for  the  summer. 

When  the  flock  arose  to  fly  on 
again,  eight  Cranes  stayed  behind.  They 
watched  their  friends  fly  away,  and  stood 
on  the  ground  with  their  necks  and  bills 
uplifted  and  mouths  open,  while  they 
trumpeted  or  called  out,  "  Good-bye ! 
Stop  for  us  in  the  fall  ! "  The  flying 
Cranes  trumpeted  back,  "  We  will  ! 
Don't  forget  us  ! " 

That  night  they  slept  near  together,  as 
they  had  done  when  with  the  large  flock, 
and  one  Crane  kept  awake  to  watch  for 
danger  while  the  others  tucked  their  heads 
under  their  wings.  They  were  fine  look- 
ing, even  when  they  slept,  and  some  peo- 
ple never  look  well  unless  they  are 
awake.  They  were  brownish-gray,  with 
no  bright  markings  at  all,  and  their  long 
legs  gave  them  a  very  genteel  look.  The 
tops  of  their  heads  were  covered  with 
warty  red  skin,  from  which  grew  short 


1 6  Among  the  Pond  People 

black     feathers    that    looked    more    like 
hairs. 

One  morning,  when  the  Cranes  awak- 
ened, a  fine  young  fellow  began  to  strut 
up  and  down  before  the  rest,  bowing  low, 
and  leaping  high  into  the  air,  and  every 
now  and  then  whooping  as  loudly  as  he 
could.  The  Gulls,  who  had  spent  the 
winter  by  the  pond,  screamed  to  each 
other,  "  The  Crane  dance  has  begun  ! " 
Even  the  Frogs,  who  are  afraid  of 
Cranes,  crept  quietly  near  to  look  on. 

It  was  not  long  before  another  young 
Crane  began  to  skip  and  hop  and  circle 
around,  drooping  his  wings  and  whoop- 
ing as  he  went.  Every  Crane  danced, 
brothers,  and  sisters,  and  all,  and  as  they 
did  so,  they  looked  lovingly  at  each  other, 
and  admired  the  fine  steps  and  enjoyed 
the  whooping.  This  went  on  until  they 
were  so  tired  they  could  hardly  stand, 
and  had  to  stop  to  eat  and  rest. 

When  they  were  eating,  the  young  fel- 


The  Dance  of  the  Sand-Hill  Cranes  17 

low  who  had  begun  the  dance,  stalked  up 
to  the  sister  of  one  of  his  friends,  as  she 
stood  in  the  edge  of  the  pond,  gracefully 
balanced  on  one  leg.  She  did  not  turn 
her  head  towards  him,  although,  having 
such  a  long  and  slender  neck,  she  could 
have  done  so  with  very  little  trouble. 
She  stood  with  her  head  on  her  breast 
and  looked  at  the  water.  After  a  while, 
he  trumpeted  softly,  as  though  he  were 
just  trying  his  voice.  Then  she  gave  a 
pretty  little  start,  and  said,  "  Oh,  are  you 
here  ?  How  you  did  frighten  me  ! " 

"  I  am  sorry,"  he  said.  "  I  did  not 
want  to  frighten  you."  And  he  looked 
at  her  admiringly. 

"  It  was  just  for  a  minute,"  she  an- 
swered. "  Of  course  I  am  not  frightened 
now  that  I  know  who  it  is." 

Then  they  stood  and  fished  for  a  long 
time  without  saying  anything.  When 
she  flew  away,  she  said,  "  That  is  a  very 
pleasant  fishing-place."  He  stood  on  the 


1 8  Among  the  Pond  People 

other  leg  for  a  while,  and  thought  how 
sweet  her  voice  sounded  as  she  said  it. 
Then  he  thought  that,  if  she  liked  the 
place  so  well,  she  might  come  there  again 
the  next  day.  He  wondered  why  he 
could  not  come  too,  although  everybody 
knows  that  a  Crane  catches  more  if  he 
fishes  alone. 

The  next  morning,  when  the  Cranes 
danced,  he  bowed  to  her  oftener  than  to 
any  of  the  rest,  and  he  thought  she  noticed 
it.  They  danced  until  they  were  almost 
too  tired  to  move,  and  indeed  he  had  to 
rest  for  a  while  before  he  went  to  feed. 
As  she  stalked  off  toward  the  pond,  she 
passed  him,  and  she  said  over  her 
shoulder,  "  I  should  think  you  would  be 
hungry.  I  am  almost  starved."  After 
she  had  gone,  he  wondered  why  she  had 
said  that.  If  he  had  been  an  older  Crane, 
and  understood  the  ways  of  the  world  a 
little  better,  he  would  have  known  that 
she  meant,  "  Are  n't  you  coming  to  that 


"WHAT  FINE,  BIG  MOUTHFULS  YOU  CAN  TAKE!"         Page 


The  Dance  of  the  Sand-Hill  Cranes   19 

fishing-place  ?  I  am  going  now."  Still, 
although  he  was  such  a  young  Crane  and 
had  never  danced  until  this  year,  he  be- 
gan to  think  that  she  liked  him  and  en- 
joyed having  him  near.  So  he  flew  off  to 
the  fishing-place  where  he  had  seen  her 
the  day  before,  and  he  stalked  along  to 
where  she  was,  and  stood  close  to  her 
while  she  fished.  Once,  when  he  caught 
something  and  swallowed  it  at  one  gulp, 
she  looked  admiringly  at  him  and  said, 
"  What  fine,  big  mouthfuls  you  can 
take  ! " 

That  pleased  him,  of  course,  because 
Cranes  think  that  big  mouthfuls  are  the 
best  kind,  so  he  tipped  his  head  to  one 
side,  and  watched  his  neck  as  the  mouth- 
ful slid  down  to  his  stomach.  He  could 
see  it  from  the  outside,  a  big  bunch  slowly 
moving  downward.  He  often  did  this 
while  he  was  eating.  He  thought  it  very 
interesting.  He  pitied  short-necked  peo- 
ple. Then  he  said,  "  Pooh  !  I  can  take 


2O  Among  the  Pond  People 

bigger  mouthfuls  than  that.  You  ought 
to  see  what  big  mouthfuls  I  can  take." 

She  changed,  and  stood  on  her  other 
leg.  "  I  saw  you  dancing  this  morning," 
she  said.  Now  it  was  not  at  all  queer 
that  she  should  have  seen  him  dancing, 
for  all  the  eight  Cranes  had  danced  to- 
gether, but  he  thought  it  very  wonderful. 

"  Did  you  notice  to  whom  I  bowed  ?  " 
he  asked.  He  was  so  excited  that  his 
knees  shook,  and  he  had  to  stand  on  both 
legs  at  once  to  keep  from  falling.  When 
a  Crane  is  as  much  excited  as  that,  it  is 
pretty  serious. 

"  To  my  sister  ?  "  she  asked  carelessly, 
as  she  drew  one  of  her  long  tail-feathers 
through  her  beak. 

"  No,"  said  he.  "  I  bowed  to  her  sis- 
ter." He  thought  that  was  a  very  clever 
thing  to  say.  But  she  suddenly  raised 
her  head,  and  said,  "There!  I  have  for- 
gotten something,"  and  flew  off,  as  she 
had  done  the  day  before.  He  wondered 


The  Dance  of  the  Sand-Hill  Cranes  21 

what  it  was.  Long  afterward  he  asked 
her  what  she  had  forgotten  and  she  said 
she  couldn't  remember  —  that  she  never 
could  remember  what  she  had  forgotten. 

It  made  him  feel  very  badly  to  have 
her  leave  him  so.  He  wanted  a  chance 
to  tell  her  something,  yet,  whenever  he 
tried  to,  it  seemed  to  stick  in  his  bill.  He 
began  to  fear  that  she  did  n't  like  him ; 
and  the  next  time  the  Cranes  danced  he 
did  n't  bow  to  her  so  much,  but  he  strutted 
and  leaped  and  whooped  even  more. 
And  she  strutted  and  leaped  and 
whooped  almost  as  loudly  as  he.  When 
they  were  all  tired  out  and  had  stopped 
dancing,  she  said  to  him,  "  I  am  so  tired  ! 
Let  us  go  off  into  the  woods  and  rest." 

You  may  be  very  sure  he  was  glad  to 
go,  and  as  he  stalked  off  with  her,  he  led 
the  way  to  a  charming  nesting-place.  He 
did  n't  know  just  how  to  tell  what  he 
wanted  to,  but  he  had  seen  another  Crane 
bowing  to  her,  and  was  afraid  she  might 


22  Among  the  Pond  People 

marry  him  if  he  was  not  quick.  Now  he 
pointed  with  one  wing  to  this  nesting- 
place,  and  said,  "  How  would  you  like  to 
build  a  nest  there  ?  " 

She  looked  where  he  had  pointed,  "  I  ?" 
she  said.  "  Why,  it  is  a  lovely  place,  but 
I  could  never  have  a  nest  alone." 

"  Let  me  help  you,"  he  said.  "  I  want 
to  marry  and  have  a  home." 

"  Why,"  said  she,  as  she  preened  her 
feathers,  "  that  is  a  very  good  plan. 
When  did  you  think  of  it  ?" 

So  they  were  married,  and  Mrs.  Sand- 
Hill  Crane  often  told  her  friends  after- 
ward that  Mr.  Crane  was  so  much  in  love 
with  her  that  she  just  had  to  marry  him. 
They  were  very,  very  happy,  and  after  a 
while — but  that  is  another  story. 


THE     YOUNG     MINNOW     WHO 

WOULD     NOT     EAT     WHEN 

HE  SHOULD 

"  \  A  J HEN  I  grow  up,"  said  one  young 
Minnow,  '* 1  am  going  to  be  a 
Bullhead,  and  scare  all  the  little  fishes." 

"  I  'm  not,"  said  his  sister.  "  I  'm  go- 
ing to  be  a  Sucker,  and  lie  around  in  the 
mud." 

"  Lazy  !  Lazy  !  "  cried  the  other 
young  Minnows,  wiggling  their  front  fins 
at  her. 

"  What  is  the  matter  ?  "  asked  a 
Father  Minnow,  swimming  in  among 
them  with  a  few  graceful  sweeps  of  his 
tail,  and  stopping  himself  by  spreading 
his  front  fins.  He  had  the  beautiful 
scarlet  coloring  on  the  under  part  of  his 
23 


24  Among  the  Pond  People 

body  which  Father  Minnows  wear  in  the 
summer-time.  That  is,  most  of  them  do, 
but  some  wear  purple.  "  What  is  the 
matter?"  he  asked  again,  balancing  him- 
self with  his  top  fin  and  his  two  hind 
ones. 

Then  all  the  little  Minnows  spoke  at 
once.  "  He  says  that  when  he  grows  up 
he  is  going  to  be  a  Bullhead,  and  frighten 
all  the  small  fishes  ;  and  she  says  that  she 
is  going  to  be  a  Sucker,  and  lie  around  in 
the  mud ;  and  we  say  that  Suckers  are 
lazy,  and  they  are  lazy,  are  n't  they  ?  " 

"  I  am  surprised  at  you,"  began  the 
Father  Minnow  severely,  "  to  think  that 
you  should  talk  such  nonsense.  You 
ought  to  know " 

But  just  then  a  Mother  Minnow  swam 
up  to  him.  "  The  Snapping  Turtle  is 
looking  for  you,"  she  said.  Father  Min- 
now hurried  away  and  she  turned  to  the 
little  ones.  "  I  heard  what  you  were 
saying,"  she  remarked,  with  a  twinkle  in 


The  Young  Minnow  25 

her  flat,  round  eyes.  "  Which  of  you  is 
going  to  be  a  Wild  Duck  ?  Won't  some- 
body be  a  Frog  ?  "  She  had  had  more 
experience  in  bringing  up  children  than 
Father  Minnow,  and  she  didn't  scold  so 
much.  She  did  make  fun  of  them 
though,  sometimes  ;  and  you  can  do  al- 
most anything  with  a  young  Minnow  if 
you  love  him  a  great  deal  and  make  fun 
of  him  a  little. 

"Why-ee!"  said  the  young  Minnows. 
"  We  would  n't  think  of  being  Wild 
Ducks,  and  we  could  n't  be  Frogs,  you 
know.  Frogs  have  legs — four  of  them. 
A  fish  could  n't  be  a  Frog  if  he  wanted  to  !  " 

"  No,"  said  Mother  Minnow.  "  A  fish 
cannot  be  anything  but  a  fish,  and  a  Min- 
now cannot  be  anything  but  a  Minnow. 
So  if  you  will  try  to  be  just  as  good 
Minnows  as  you  can,  we  will  let  the  little 
Bullheads  and  Suckers  do  their  own 
growing  up." 

She  looked  at  them  all  again  with  her 


26  Among  the  Pond  People 

flat,  round  eyes,  which  saw  so  much  and 
were  always  open,  because  there  was 
nothing  to  make  them  shut.  She  saw 
one  tiny  fellow  hiding  behind  his  brother. 
"Have  you  torn  your  fin  again?"  she 
asked. 

"Yes'm,  just  a  little,"  said  he.  "A 
boy  caught  me  when  he  was  in  wading, 
and  I  tore  it  when  I  flopped  away  from 
him." 

"  Dreadful !  "  said  she.  "  How  you  do 
look  !  If  you  are  so  careless,  you  will 
soon  not  have  a  whole  fin  to  your  back- 
er your  front  either.  Children,  you 
must  remember  to  swim  away  from  boys. 
When  the  Cows  wade  in  to  drink,  you 
may  stay  among  them,  if  you  wish. 
They  are  friendly.  We  pond  people  are 
afraid  of  boys,  although  some  of  them 
are  said  not  to  be  dangerous." 

"  Pooh ! "  said  one  young  Minnow. 
"  All  the  pond  people  are  not  so  afraid  ! 
The  Bloodsuckers  say  they  like  them." 


The  Young  Minnow  27 

The  Mother  Minnow  looked  very  se- 
vere when  he  said  this,  but  she  only  re- 
plied, "  Very  well.  When  you  are  a 
Bloodsucker  you  may  stay  near  boys. 
As  long  as  you  are  a  Minnow,  you  must 
stay  away." 

"  Now,"  she  added,  "swim  along,  the 
whole  school  of  you  !  I  am  tired  and 
want  a  nap  in  the  pondweed."  So  they 
all  swam  away,  and  she  wriggled  her  sil- 
very brown  body  into  the  soft  green 
weeds  and  had  a  good  sleep.  She  was 
careful  to  hide  herself,  for  there  were 
some  people  in  the  pond  whom  she  did 
not  want  to  have  find  her ;  and,  being  a 
fish,  she  could  not  hear  very  distinctly  if 
they  came  near.  Of  course  her  eyes 
were  open  even  when  she  was  asleep,  be- 
cause she  had  no  eyelids,  but  they  were 
not  working  although  they  were  open. 
That  is  an  uncomfortable  thing  about  be- 
ing a  fish — one  cannot  hear  much.  One 
cannot  taste  much  either,  or  feel  much, 


28  Among  the  Pond  People 

yet  when  one  has  always  been  a  fish  and 
is  used  to  it,  it  is  not  so  hard. 

She  slept  a  long  time,  and  then  the 
whole  school  of  young  Minnows  came  to 
look  for  her.  "  We  are  afraid,"  they 
cried.  "  We  feel  so  very  queerly.  We 
don't  know  how  we  feel,  either,  and  that 
is  the  worst  part  of  it.  It  might  be  in  our 
stomachs,  or  it  might  be  in  our  fins,  and 
perhaps  there  is  something  wrong  with 
our  gill-covers.  Wake  up  and  tell  us 
what  is  the  matter." 

The  Mother  Minnow  awakened  and 
she  felt  queerly  too,  but,  being  older,  she 
knew  what  was  the  matter.  "  That,"  she 
said,  "  is  the  storm  feeling." 

"  But,"  said  the  young  Minnows,  "  there 
isn't  any  storm." 

"  No,"    she    answered   wisely.     "  Not 


now." 


"  And   there  has  n't  been   any,"    they 
said. 

"  No,"     she    answered     again.     "  The 


The  Young  Minnow  29 

storm  you  feel  is  the  storm  that  is  going 
to  be." 

"  And  shall  we  always  feel  it  so  ?  "  they 
asked. 

"  Always  before  a  storm,"  she  said. 

"  Why  ?  "  asked  the  young  Minnows. 

"  Because,"  said  she.  "There  is  no  an- 
swer to  that  question,  but  just  '  because.' 
When  the  storm  comes  you  cannot  smell 
your  food  and  find  it,  so  you  must  eat  all 
you  can  before  then.  Eat  everything  you 
can  find  and  be  quick."  As  she  spoke 
she  took  a  great  mouthful  of  pondweed 
and  swallowed  it. 

All  but  one  of  the  young  Minnows 
swam  quickly  away  to  do  as  she  had  told 
them  to.  This  young  Minnow  wanted  to 
know  just  how  and  why  and  all  about  it, 
so  he  stayed  to  ask  questions.  You  know 
there  are  some  questions  which  fishes 
cannot  answer,  and  some  which  Oxen  can- 
not answer,  and  some  which  nobody  can 
answer ;  and  when  the  Mother  Minnow 


30  Among  the  Pond  People 

told  the  young  Minnows  what  she  did, 
she  had  nothing  more  to  tell.  But  there 
are  some  young  Minnows  who  never 
will  be  satisfied,  and  who  tease,  and  tease, 
and  tease,  and  tease. 

"  Hurry  along  and  eat  all  you  can," 
said  the  Mother  Minnow  to  him  again. 

"  I  want  to  know,"  said  he,  opening  his 
mouth  very  wide  indeed  and  breathing  in 
a  great  deal  of  water  as  he  spoke,  "  I 
want  to  know  where  I  feel  queerly." 

"  I  can't  tell,"  said  the  Mother  Min- 
now, between  mouthfuls.  "No  fish  can 
tell." 

"  Well,  what  makes  me  feel  queerly 
there?" 

"  The  storm,"  said  she. 

"  How  does  it  make  me  feel  queerly?" 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  the  Mother  Min- 
now. 

"Who  does  know?"  asked  the  young 
Minnow. 

"  Nobody,"  said  she,  swallowing  some 


The  Young  Minnow  31 

more  pondweed  of  one  kind  and  then 
beginning  on  another.  "  Do  eat  some- 
thing or  you  will  be  very  hungry  by 
and  by. 

11  Well,  why  does  a  storm  make  me  feel 
so  ?  "  asked  he. 

"  Because  !  "  said  she.  She  said  it  very 
firmly  and  she  was  quite  right  in  saying  it 
then,  for  there  was  a  cause,  yet  she  could 
not  tell  what  it  was.  There  are  only 
about  seven  times  in  one's  life  when  it  is 
right  to  answer  in  this  way,  and  what 
the  other  six  are  you  must  decide  for 
yourself. 

Just  then  there  was  a  peal  of  thunder 
which  even  a  Minnow  could  hear,  and 
the  wind  blew  until  the  slender  forest 
trees  bent  far  over.  The  rain  came  down 
in  great  drops  which  pattered  on  the 
water  of  the  pond  and  started  tiny  circles 
around  each  drop,  every  circle  spreading 
wider  and  wider  until  it  touched  other  cir- 
cles and  broke.  Down  in  the  darkened 


32  Among  the  Pond  People 

water  the  fishes  lay  together  on  the 
bottom,  and  wondered  how  long  it  would 
last,  and  hoped  it  would  not  be  a  great, 
great  while  before  they  could  smell  their 
food  again. 

One  little  fellow  was  more  impatient 
than  the  others.  "  Did  n't  you  eat 
enough  to  last  you  ?  "  they  said. 

"  I  did  n't  eat  anything,"  he  answered. 

"  Not  anything  !  "  they  exclaimed. 
"  Why  not?" 

"  Because  ! "  said  he.  And  that  was 
not  right,  for  he  did  know  the  reason. 
His  mother  looked  at  him,  and  he  looked 
at  her,  and  she  had  a  twinkle  in  her  round, 
flat  eyes.  "  Poor  child  ! "  she  thought. 
"  He  must  be  hungry."  But  she  said 
nothing. 


THE  STICKLEBACK  FATHER 

1VTOBODY  can  truthfully  say  that  the 
1  ^  Sticklebacks  are  not  good  fathers. 
There  are  no  other  fish  fathers  who  work 
so  hard  for  their  children  as  the  Stickle- 
backs do.  As  to  the  Stickleback  Moth- 
ers— well,  that  is  different. 

This  particular  Stickleback  Father  had 
lived,  ever  since  he  had  left  the  nest,  with 
a  little  company  of  his  friends  in  a  quiet 
place  near  the  edge  of  the  pond.  Some- 
times, when  they  tired  of  staying  quietly 
at  home,  they  had  made  short  journeys 
up  a  brook  that  emptied  into  the  pond. 
It  was  a  brook  that  flowed  gently  over 
an  even  bed,  else  they  would  never  have 
gone  there,  for  Sticklebacks  like  quiet 
waters.  When  they  swam  in  this  little 

33 


34  Among  the  Pond  People 

stream,  they  met  the  Brook  Trout,  who 
were  much  larger  than  they,  and  who 
were  the  most  important  people  there. 

Now  this  Stickleback  was  a  year  old  and 
knew  much  more  than  he  did  the  summer 
before.  When  the  alder  tassels  and  pussy 
willows  hung  over  the  edge  of  the  pond 
in  the  spring-time,  he  began  to  think  seri- 
ously of  life.  He  was  no  longer  really 
young,  and  the  days  were  past  in  which 
he  was  contented  to  just  swim  and  eat 
and  sleep.  It  was  time  he  should  build  a 
home  and  raise  a  family  if  he  wanted  to 
ever  be  a  grandfather.  He  had  a  few 
relatives  who  were  great-grandfathers,  and 
one  who  was  a  great-great-grandfather. 
That  does  not  often  happen,  because  to 
be  a  Stickleback  Great-great-grandfather, 
one  must  be  four  years  old,  and  few 
Sticklebacks  live  to  that  age. 

As  he  began  to  think  about  these  things, 
he  left  the  company  of  his  friends  and  went 
to  live  by  himself.  He  chose  a  place  near 


The  Stickleback  Father  35 

the  edge  of  the  pond  to  be  his  home  ;  and 
he  brushed  the  pond-bottom  there  with 
his  tail  until  he  had  swept  away  all  the 
loose  sticks  and  broken  shells.  He  told 
some  Pond  Snails,  who  were  there,  that 
they  must  move  away  because  he  wanted 
the  place.  At  first  they  did  n't  want  to 
go,  but  when  they  saw  how  fierce  he 
looked,  they  thought  about  it  again  and 
decided  that  perhaps  there  were  other 
places  which  would  suit  them  quite  as 
well  —  indeed,  they  might  find  one  that 
they  liked  even  better.  Besides,  as  one 
of  them  said  to  his  brother,  they  had  to 
remember  that  in  ponds  it  is  always  right 
for  the  weak  people  to  give  up  to  the 
strong  people. 

"It  will  take  us  quite  a  while  to  move," 
they  said  to  him,  "  for  you  know  we  can- 
not hurry,  but  we  will  begin  at  once." 

All  the  rest  of  that  day  each  Snail  was 
lengthening  and  shortening  his  one  foot, 
which -was  his  only  way  of  walking.  You 


36  Among  the  Pond  People 

can  see  how  slow  that  must  be,  for  a  Snail 
cannot  lift  his  foot  from  one  place  and  put 
it  down  in  another,  or  he  would  have 
nothing  to  stand  on  while  he  was  lifting  it. 
This  was  a  very  hard  day  for  them,  yet 
they  were  cheerful  and  made  the  best  of  it. 

"  Well,"  said  one,  as  he  stopped  to  rest 
his  foot,  "  I  'm  glad  we  don't  have  to 
build  a  home  when  we  do  find  the  right 
place.  How  I  pity  people  who  have  to 
do  that ! " 

"  Yes,"  said  his  brother.  "  There  are 
not  many  so  sure  of  their  homes  as  we. 
And  what  people  want  of  so  much  room, 
I  can't  understand  !  A  Muskrat  told  me 
he  wanted  room  to  turn  around  in  his 
house.  I  don't  see  what  use  there  is  in 
turning  round,  do  you  ?  " 

"  No,"  answered  the  other  Snail,  begin- 
ning to  walk  again.  "  It  is  just  one  of 
his  silly  ideas.  My  shell  is  big  enough  to 
let  me  draw  in  my  whole  body,  and  that 
is  house  room  enough  for  any  person  ! " 


The  Stickleback  Father  37 

The  Stickleback  had  not  meant  to  look 
fierce  at  the  Pond  Snails.  He  had  done 
so  because  he  could  n't  help  it.  All  his  fins 
were  bristling  with  sharp  points  of  bone, 
and  he  had  extra  bone-points  sticking  out 
of  his  back,  besides  wearing  a  great  many 
of  his  flat  bones  on  the  outside.  All  his 
family  had  these  extra  bones,  and  that 
was  why  they  were  called  Sticklebacks. 
They  were  a  brave  family  and  not  afraid 
of  many  things,  although  they  were  so 
small.  There  came  a  time  when  the 
Stickleback  Father  wanted  to  look  fierce, 
but  that  was  later.  Now  he  went  to 
work  to  build  his  nest. 

First  he  made  a  little  hollow  in  the 
pond-bottom,  and  lined  it  with  watergrass 
and  tiny  pieces  of  roots.  Next,  he  made 
the  side-walls  of  the  same  things,  and  last 
of  all,  the  roof.  When  it  was  done,  he 
swam  carefully  into  it  and  looked  around. 
Under  and  beside  and  over  him  were  soft 
grasses  and  roots.  At  each  end  was  an 


38  Among  the  Pond  People 

open  doorway.  "  It  is  a  good  nest,"  he 
said,  "  a  very  good  nest  for  my  first  one. 
Now  I  must  ask  some  of  my  friends  to 
lay  eggs  in  it  for  me." 

Before  doing  this,  he  went  to  look  at 
the  homes  built  by  his  neighbors.  After 
he  left  the  company  in  the  quiet  pool, 
many  others  did  the  same,  until  the  only 
Sticklebacks  left  there  were  the  dull-col- 
ored ones,  the  egg-layers.  The  nest- 
builders  had  been  dull-colored,  too,  but  in 
the  spring-time  there  came  beautiful  red 
and  blue  markings  on  their  bodies,  until 
now  they  were  very  handsome  fellows. 
It  is  sad  to  tell,  still  it  is  true,  that  they 
also  became  very  cross  at  this  time.  Per- 
haps it  was  the  work  and  worry  of  nest- 
building  that  made  them  so,  yet,  whatever 
it  was,  every  bright- colored  Stickleback 
wanted  to  fight  every  other  bright-colored 
Stickleback.  That  was  how  it  happened 
that,  when  this  one  went  to  look  at  the 
nest  of  an  old  friend,  with  whom  he  had 


THEN  THEY  SWAM  AT   EACH   OTHER. 


Page  39 


The  Stickleback  Father  39 

played  ever  since  he  was  hatched,  this 
same  friend  called  out,  "  Don't  you  come 
near  my  nest !  " 

The  visiting  Stickleback  replied,  "  I 
shall  if  I  want  to  ! "  Then  they  swam  at 
each  other  and  flopped  and  splashed  and 
pushed  and  jabbed  until  both  were  very 
tired  and  sore,  and  each  was  glad  to  stay  by 
his  own  home.  This  was  the  time  when 
they  wanted  to  look  fierce. 

Soon  the  dull-colored  Sticklebacks  came 
swimming  past,  waving  their  tails  grace- 
fully, and  talking  to  each  other.  Now 
this  fine  fellow,  who  had  sent  the  Snails 
away  and  built  his  nest,  who  had  fought 
his  old  friend  and  come  home  again,  swam 
up  to  a  dull-colored  Stickleback,  and  said, 
"  Won't  you  lay  a  few  eggs  in  my  nest  ? 
I  'm  sure  you  will  find  it  comfortable." 

She  answered,  "  Why,  yes  !  I  would- 
n't mind  laying  a  few  there."  And  she 
tried  to  look  as  though  she  had  not  ex- 
pected the  invitation.  While  she  was 


4O  Among  the  Pond  People 

carefully  laying  the  eggs  in  the  nest,  he 
stood  ready  to  fight  anybody  who  dis- 
turbed her.  She  came  out  after  a  while 
and  swam  away.  Before  she  went,  she 
said,  "  Are  n't  you  ashamed  to  fight  so  ? 
We  dull-colored  ones  never  fight."  She 
held  her  fins  very  stiff  as  she  spoke,  be- 
cause she  thought  it  her  duty  to  scold 
him.  The  dull-colored  Sticklebacks  often 
did  this.  They  thought  that  they  were  a 
little  better  than  the  others  ;  so  they  swam 
around  together  and  talked  about  things, 
and  sometimes  forgot  how  hard  it  was  to 
be  the  nest-builder  and  stay  at  home  and 
work.  Then  they  called  upon  the  bright- 
colored  Sticklebacks,  for  they  really  liked 
them  very  much,  and  told  them  what 
they  should  do.  That  was  why  this  one 
said,  "  We  dull-colored  ones  never  fight." 

"  Have  you  ever  been  red  and  blue  ?  " 
asked  the  nest-builder. 

"  N-no,"  said  she.  "  But  I  don't  see 
what  difference  that  makes." 


The  Stickleback  Father  41 

"  Well,  it  does  make  a  difference,"  said 
he.  "  When  a  fellow  is  red  and  blue,  he 
can't  help  fighting.  I  '11  be  as  good-na- 
tured as  any  of  you  after  I  stop  being  red 
and  blue." 

Of  course  she  could  not  say  anything 
more  after  that,  so  she  swam  off  to  her 
sisters.  The  bright-colored  Stickleback 
looked  at  the  eggs  she  had  laid.  They 
were  sticky,  like  the  eggs  of  all  fishes,  so 
that  they  stuck  to  the  bottom  of  the  nest. 
He  covered  them  carefully,  and  after  that 
he  was  really  a  Stickleback  Father.  It  is 
true  that  he  did  not  have  any  Stickleback 
children  to  swim  around  him  and  open 
their  dear  little  mouths  at  him,  but  he 
knew  that  the  eggs  would  hatch  soon,  and 
that  after  he  had  built  a  nest  and  covered 
the  eggs  in  it,  the  tiny  Sticklebacks  were 
beginning  to  grow. 

However,  he  wanted  more  eggs  in  his 
nest,  so  he  watched  for  another  dull- 
colored  Stickleback  and  called  her  in  to 


42  Among  the  Pond  People 

help  him.  He  did  this  until  he  had 
almost  an  hundred  eggs  there,  and  all 
this  time  he  had  fought  every  bright- 
colored  Stickleback  who  came  near  him. 
He  became  very  tired  indeed  ;  but  he  had 
to  fight,  you  know,  because  he  was  red 
and  blue.  And  he  had  covered  all  the 
eggs  and  guarded  them,  else  they  would 
never  have  hatched. 

The  dull-colored  Sticklebacks  were  also 
tired.  They  had  been  swimming  from 
nest  to  nest,  laying  a  few  eggs  in  each. 
Now  they  went  off  together  to  a  quiet 
pool  and  ate  everything  they  could  find  to 
eat,  and  visited  with  each  other,  and  said 
it  was  a  shame  that  the  bright-colored 
Sticklebacks  had  fought  so,  and  told  how 
they  thought  little  Sticklebacks  should  be 
brought  up. 

And  now  the  red  and  blue  markings  on 
the  Stickleback  Father  grew  paler  and 
paler,  until  he  did  not  have  to  fight  at 
all,  and  could  call  upon  his  friends  and 


The  Stickleback  Father  43 

see  how  their  children  were  hatching. 
One  fine  day,  his  first  child  broke  the 
shell,  and  then  another  and  another,  until 
he  had  an  hundred  beautiful  Stickleback 
babies  to  feed.  He  worked  hard  for 
them,  and  some  nights,  when  he  could 
stop  and  rest,  his  fins  ached  as  though 
they  would  drop  off.  But  they  never  did. 

As  the  Stickleback  children  grew 
stronger,  they  swam  off  to  take  care  of 
themselves,  and  he  had  less  to  do.  When 
the  last  had  gone,  he  left  the  old  nest  and 
went  to  the  pool  where  the  dull-colored 
Sticklebacks  were.  They  told  him  he 
was  not  looking  well,  and  that  he  had  n't 
managed  the  children  right,  and  that  they 
thought  he  tried  to  do  too  much. 

He  was  too  tired  to  talk  about  it,  so  he 
just  said,  "  Perhaps,"  and  began  to  eat 
something.  Yet,  down  in  his  fatherly 
heart  he  knew  it  was  worth  doing.  He 
knew,  too,  that  when  spring  should  come 
once  more,  he  would  become  red  and  blue 


44  Among  the  Pond  People 

again,  and  build  another  nest,  and  fight 
and  work  and  love  as  he  had  done  before. 
"  There  is  nothing  in  the  world  better 
than  working  for  one's  own  little  Stickle- 
backs," said  he. 


THE  CARELESS  CADDIS  WORM 

TX7HEN  the  Caddis  Fly  felt  like  lay- 
ing eggs,  she  crawled  down  the 
stalk  of  one  of  the  pond  plants  and  laid 
them  there.  She  covered  them  with 
something  sticky,  so  that  they  were  sure 
to  stay  where  she  put  them.  "  There  !  " 
she  said,  as  she  crawled  up  to  the  air 
again.  "  My  work  is  done."  Soon  after 
this,  she  lay  down  for  a  long,  long  rest. 
What  with  flying,  and  visiting,  and  laying 
eggs,  she  had  become  very  tired ;  and  it 
was  not  strange,  for  she  had  not  eaten  a 
mouthful  since  she  got  her  wings. 

This  had  puzzled  the  Dragon  -  Flies 
very  much.  They  could  not  understand 
it,  because  they  were  always  eating. 
They  would  have  liked  to  ask  her  about 

45 


46  Among  the  Pond  People 

it,  but  they  went  to  sleep  for  the  night 
soon  after  she  got  up,  and  whenever  she 
saw  them  coming  she  flew  away.  "  I  do 
not  seem  to  feel  hungry,"  said  she,  "  so 
why  should  I  eat  ?  Besides,"  she  added, 
"  I  could  n't  eat  if  I  wanted  to,  my  mouth 
is  so  small  and  weak.  I  ate  a  great  deal 
while  I  was  growing — quite  enough  to  last 
me  —  and  it  saves  time  not  to  bother  with 
hunting  food  now." 

When  her  eggs  hatched,  the  larvae 
were  slender,  soft,  six-footed  babies  called 
Caddis  Worms.  They  were  white,  and 
they  showed  as  plainly  in  the  water  as  a 
pond-lily  does  on  the  top  of  it.  It  is  not 
safe  to  be  white  if  one  is  to  live  in  the 
water  ;  certainly  not  unless  one  can  swim 
fast  and  turn  quickly.  And  there  is  a 
reason  for  this,  as  any  one  of  the  pond 
people  will  tell  you.  Even  the  fishes 
wear  all  their  white  on  the  under  side  of 
their  bodies,  so  that  if  they  swim  near  the 
top  of  the  water,  a  hungry  Fish  Hawk  is 


The  Careless  Caddis  Worm         47 

not  so  likely  to  see  them  and  pounce 
down  on  them. 

The  Caddis  Worms  soon  found  that 
white  was  not  a  good  color  to  wear,  and 
they  talked  of  it  among  themselves.  They 
were  very  bright  larvae.  One  day  the 
biggest  one  was  standing  on  a  stem  of  pick- 
erel-weed, when  his  sister  came  toward  him. 
She  did  not  come  very  fast,  because  she 
was  neither  swimming  nor  walking,  but 
biting  herself  along.  All  the  Caddis  Worms 
did  this  at  times,  for  their  legs  were  weak. 
She  reached  as  far  forward  as  she  could, 
and  fastened  her  strong  jaws  in  the 
weed,  then  she  gave  a  jerk  and  pulled  her 
body  ahead.  "It  is  a  very  good  way  to 
travel,"  said  she,  "  and  such  a  saving  of 
one's  legs."  Now  she  was  in  so  great  a 
hurry  that  sometimes  when  she  pulled 
herself  ahead,  she  turned  a  half-somersault 
and  came  down  on  her  back. 

"  What  is  the  matter  ?  "  called  the  Big- 
gest Caddis  Worm.  "Don't  hurry  so. 


48  Among  the  Pond  People 

There  is  lots  of  time."  That  was  just 
him,  for  he  was  lazy.  Everybody  said  so. 

"  I  must  hurry,"  said  she,  and  she 
breathed  very  fast  with  the  white  breath- 
ing hairs  that  grew  on  both  sides  of  her 
body.  She  picked  herself  up  from  her 
last  somersault  and  stood  beside  her 
brother,  near  enough  to  speak  quite  softly. 
"I  have  been  getting  away  from  Belos- 
toma,"  she  said,  "  and  I  was  dreadfully 
afraid  he  would  catch  me." 

"  Well,  you  're  all  right  now,  are  n't 
you  ?  "  asked  her  brother.  And  that  was 
also  like  him.  As  long  as  he  could  have 
enough  to  eat  and  was  comfortable,  he 
did  not  want  to  think  about  anything 
unpleasant. 

"No,  I'm  not,"  she  answered,  "  and  I 
won't  be  so  long  as  any  hungry  fish  or 
water-bug  can  see  me  so  plainly.  I  'm 
tired  of  being  white." 

"  You  are  not  so  white  as  you  were," 
said  her  brother.  "  None  of  us  children 


The  Careless  Caddis  Worm         49 

are.  Our  heads  and  the  front  part  of  our 
bodies  are  turning  brown  and  getting 
harder."  That  was  true,  and  he  was 
particularly  hard-headed. 

"  Yes,  but  what  about  the  rest  of  us  ?  " 
said  she,  and  surely  there  was  some  ex- 
cuse for  her  if  she  was  impatient.  "  If 
Belostoma  can  see  part  of  me  and  chase 
that,  he  will  find  the  rest  of  me  rather 
near  by." 

"  Keep  quiet  then,  and  see  if  you  don't 
get  hard  and  brown  all  over,"  said  he. 

"  I  never  shall,"  said  she.  "  I  went  to 
the  Clams  and  asked  them  if  I  would,  and 
they  said  '  No.'  1  'm  going  to  build  a 
house  to  cover  the  back  part  of  my  body, 
and  you  'd  better  do  the  same  thing." 

The  Biggest  Caddis  Worm  looked  very 
much  surprised.  "  Whatever  made  you 
think  of  that  ?  "  said  he. 

"  I  suppose  because  there  was  n't  any- 
thing else  to  think  of,"  said  she.  "  One 
has  to  think  of  something." 


5O  Among  the  Pond  People 

"  I  don't,"  said  he. 

She  started  away  to  where  her  other 
brothers  and  sisters  were.  "  Where  are 
you  going  ?  "  cried  he. 

"  Going  to  build  my  house,"  answered 
she.  "  You  'd  better  come  too." 

"  Not  now,"  said  he.  "  I  am  waiting  to 
get  the  rest  of  my  breakfast.  I  '11  come 
by  and  by." 

The  Biggest  Caddis  Worm  stood  on 
the  pickerel-weed  and  ate  his  breakfast. 
Then  he  stood  there  a  while  longer.  "  I 
do  not  think  it  is  well  to  work  right  after 
eating,"  he  said.  Below  him  in  the  water, 
his  brothers  and  sisters  were  busily 
gathering  tiny  sticks,  stones,  and  bits  of 
broken  shell,  with  which  to  make  their 
houses.  Each  Caddis  Worm  found  his 
own,  and  fastened  them  together  with  a 
sort  of  silk  which  he  pulled  out  of  his 
body.  They  had  nobody  to  show  them 
how,  so  each  planned  to  suit  himself,  and 
no  two  were  exactly  alike. 


The  Careless  Caddis  Worm         5 1 

"  I  'm  going  to  make  my  house  big 
enough  so  I  can  pull  in  my  head  and  legs 
when  I  want  to,"  said  one. 

"  So  am  I,"  cried  all  the  other  Caddis 
Worms. 

After  a  while,  somebody  said,  "  I  'm 
going  to  have  an  open  door  at  the  back 
of  my  house."  Then  each  of  his  busy 
brothers  and  sisters  cried,  "  So  am  I." 

When  the  tiny  houses  were  done,  each 
Caddis  Worm  crawled  inside  of  his  own, 
and  lay  with  head  and  legs  outside  the 
front  door.  The  white  part  of  their 
bodies  did  not  show  at  all,  and,  if  they 
wanted  to  do  so,  they  could  pull  their 
heads  in.  Even  Belostoma,  the  Giant 
Water-Bug,  might  have  passed  close  to 
them  then  and  not  seen  them  at  all. 

"  Let  's  hook  ourselves  in  ! "  cried  one 
Caddis  Worm,  and  all  the  others  an- 
swered, "  Let  's." 

So  each  hooked  himself  in  with  the  two 
stout  hooks  which  grew  at  the  end  of  his 


52  Among  the  Pond  People 

body,  and  there  they  were  as  snug  and 
comfortable  as  Clams.  About  this  time  the 
Big  Brother  came  slowly  along  the  stem 
of  pickerel-weed.  "  What,"  said  he,  "  you 
have  n't  got  your  houses  done  already  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  answered  the  rest  joyfully. 
"  See  us  pull  in  our  heads."  And  they 
all  pulled  in  their  heads  and  poked  them 
out  again.  He  was  the  only  white-bodied 
person  in  sight. 

"  I  must  have  a  home,"  said  he.  "  I 
wish  one  of  you  Worms  would  give  me 
yours.  You  could  make  yourself  an- 
other, you  know.  There  is  lots  more 
stuff." 

"  Make  it  yourself,"  they  replied. 
"  Help  yourself  to  stuff." 

"  But  I  don't  know  how,"  he  said, 
"  and  you  do." 

"Whose  fault  is  that?"  asked  his  sis- 
ter. Then  she  was  afraid  that  he  might 
think  her  cross,  and  she  added  quickly, 
"  We  '11  tell  you  how,  if  you  '11  begin." 


The  Careless  Caddis  Worm         53 

The  Biggest  Caddis  Worm  got  to- 
gether some  tiny  sticks  and  stones  and 
pieces  of  broken  shell,  but  it  was  n't  very 
much  fun  working  alone.  Then  they  told 
him  what  to  do,  and  how  to  fasten  them 
to  each  other  with  silk.  "  Be  sure  you  tie 
them  strongly,"  they  said. 

"  Oh,  that 's  strong  enough,"  he  an- 
swered. "  It'll  do,  anyhow.  If  it  comes 
to  pieces  I  can  fix  it."  His  brothers  and 
sisters  thought  he  should  make  it  stouter, 
yet  they  said  nothing  more,  for  he  would 
not  have  liked  it  if  they  had  ;  and  they 
had  already  said  so  once.  When  he 
crawled  into  his  house  and  hooked  him- 
self in,  there  was  not  a  Caddis  Worm  in 
sight,  and  they  were  very  proud  to  think 
how  they  had  planned  and  built  their 
houses.  They  did  not  know  that  Caddis 
Worms  had  always  done  so,  and  they 
thought  themselves  the  first  to  ever  think 
of  such  a  thing. 

The  Biggest  Caddis  Worm's  house  was 


54  Among  the  Pond  People 

not  well  fastened  together,  and  every  day 
he  said,  "  I  really  must  fix  it  to-morrow." 
But  when  to-morrow  came,  it  always 
proved  to  be  to-day,  and,  besides,  he  usu- 
ally found  something  more  interesting  to 
be  done.  It  took  him  a  great  deal  of 
time  to  change  his  skin,  and  that  could 
not  be  easily  put  off.  He  grew  so  fast 
that  he  was  likely  to  awaken  almost  any 
morning  and  find  his  heftd  poking  through 
the  top  of  his  skin,  and,  lazy  as  he  was,  he 
would  not  have  the  pond  people  see  him 
around  with  a  crack  in  the  skin  of  his 
head,  right  where  it  showed.  So  when 
this  happened,  he  always  pulled  his  body 
through  the  crack,  and  threw  the  old  skin 
away.  There  was  sure  to  be  a  whole 
new  one  underneath,  you  know. 

When  they  had  changed  their  skin 
many  times,  the  Caddis  Worms  became 
more  quiet  and  thoughtful.  At  last  the 
sister  who  had  first  planned  to  build 
houses,  fastened  hers  to  a  stone,  and  spun 


The  Careless  Caddis  Worm         55 

gratings  across  both  its  front  and  its  back 
doors.  "  I  am  going  to  sleep,"  she  said, 
"  to  grow  my  feelers  and  get  ready  to  fly 
and  breathe  air.  I  don't  want  anybody 
to  awaken  me.  All  I  want  to  do  is  to 
sleep  and  grow  and  breathe.  The  water 
will  come  in  through  the  gratings,  so  I 
shall  be  all  right.  I  could  n't  sleep  in  a 
house  where  there  was  not  plenty  of  fresh 
water  to  breathe."  Then  she  cuddled 
down  and  dozed  off,  and  when  her  brothers 
and  sisters  spoke  of  her,  they  called  her 
"  the  Caddis  Nymph." 

They  did  not  speak  of  her  many  times, 
however,  for  they  soon  fastened  their 
houses  to  something  solid,  and  spun  grat- 
ings in  their  doorways  and  went  to  sleep. 

One  day  a  Water-Adder  came  around 
where  all  the  Caddis  houses  were.  "  Um- 
hum,"  said  he  to  himself.  "  There  used 
to  be  a  nice  lot  of  Caddis  Worms  around 
here,  and  now  I  have  n't  seen  one  in  ever 
so  long.  I  suppose  they  are  hidden  away 


56  Among  the  Pond  People 

somewhere  asleep.  Well,  I  must  go  away 
from  here  and  find  my  dinner.  I  am 
nearly  starved.  The  front  half  of  my 
stomach  has  n't  a  thing  in  it."  He  whisked 
his  tail  and  went  away,  but  that  whisk  hit 
a  tiny  house  of  sticks,  stones,  and  bits  of 
broken  shell,  and  a  fat  sleeping  Caddis 
Nymph  rolled  out.  It  was  the  Biggest 
Brother. 

Soon  Belostoma,  the  Giant  Water-Bug, 
came  that  way.  "  What  is  this  ?"  he  ex- 
claimed, as  he  saw  the  sleeping  Caddis 
Nymph.  "  Somebody  built  a  poor  house 
to  sleep  in.  You  need  to  be  cared  for, 
young  Caddis."  He  picked  up  the  sleep- 
ing Caddis  Nymph  in  his  stout  forelegs 
and  swam  off.  Nobody  knows  just  what 
happened  after  that. 

When  the  other  Caddis  Nymphs  awak- 
ened, they  bit  through  their  gratings  and 
had  a  good  visit  before  they  crawled  out 
of  the  pond  into  their  new  home,  the 
air.  "  Has  anybody  seen  my  biggest 


The  Careless  Caddis  Worm         57 

brother?"  asked  one  Nymph  of  another, 
but  everybody  answered,  "  No." 

Each  looked  all  around  with  his  two  far- 
apart  eyes,  and  then  they  decided  that  he 
must  have  awakened  first  and  left  the 
water  before  them.  But  you  know  that 
he  could  not  have  done  so,  because  he 
could  never  be  a  Caddis  Fly  unless  he  fin- 
ished the  Nymph-sleep  in  his  house,  and 
he  did  not  do  that.  He  had  stopped  be- 
ing a  Caddis  Worm  when  he  turned  into 
a  Caddis  Nymph.  Nobody  will  ever 
know  just  what  did  become  of  him  unless 
Belostoma  tells  — and  Belostoma  is  not 
likely  to  tell. 


THE   TADPOLE    WHO   WANTED 
TO  BE  GROWN-UP 

TT  was  a  bright,  warm  April  day  when 
*  the  First  Tadpole  of  the  season  ate  his 
way  out  of  the  jelly-covered  egg  in  which 
he  had  come  to  life.  He  was  a  very  tiny, 
dark  brown  fellow.  It  would  be  hard  to 
tell  just  what  he  did  look  like,  for  there  is 
nothing  in  the  world  that  one  Tadpole 
looks  like  unless  it  is  another  Tadpole. 
He  had  a  very  small  head  with  a  busy 
little  mouth  opening  on  the  front  side  of 
it :  just  above  each  end  of  this  mouth  was 
a  shining  black  eye,  and  on  the  lower  side 
of  his  head  was  a  very  wiggly  tail.  Some- 
where between  his  head  and  the  tip  of  this 
were  his  small  stomach  and  places  for  legs, 
but  one  could  not  see  all  that  in  looking  at 
58 


The  Tadpole  59 

him.  It  seemed  as  if  what  was  not  head 
was  tail,  and  what  was  not  tail  was  head. 

When  the  First  Tadpole  found  himself 
free  in  the  water,  he  swam  along  by  the 
great  green  floating  jelly-mass  of  Frogs' 
eggs,  and  pressed  his  face  up  close  to  first 
one  egg  and  then  another.  He  saw  other 
Tadpoles  almost  as  large  as  he,  and  they 
were  wriggling  inside  their  egg  homes. 
He  couldn't  talk  to  them  through  the 
jelly-mass — he  could  only  look  at  them, 
and  they  looked  greenish  because  he  saw 
them  through  green  jelly.  They  were 
really  dark  brown,  like  him.  He  wanted 
them  to  come  out  to  play  with  him  and  he 
tried  to  show  them  that  it  was  more  inter- 
esting where  he  was,  so  he  opened  and 
shut  his  hard  little  jaws  very  fast  and  took 
big  Tadpole-mouthfuls  of  green  jelly. 

Perhaps  it  was  seeing  this,  and  perhaps 
it  was  because  the  warm  sunshine  made 
them  restless  —  but  for  some  reason  the 
shut-in  Tadpoles  nibbled  busily  at  the 


60  Among  the  Pond  People 

egg-covering  and  before  long  were  in 
the  water  with  their  brother.  They  all 
looked  alike,  and  nobody  except  that  one 
particular  Tadpole  knew  who  had  been 
the  first  to  hatch.  He  never  forgot  it, 
and  indeed  why  should  he  ?  If  one  has 
ever  been  the  First  Tadpole,  he  is  quite 
sure  to  remember  the  loneliness  of  it  all 
his  life. 

Soon  they  dropped  to  the  bottom  of 
the  pond  and  met  their  neighbors.  They 
were  such  little  fellows  that  nobody  paid 
much  attention  to  them.  The  older  pond 
people  often  seemed  to  forget  that  the 
Tadpoles  heard  what  they  said,  and  cared 
too.  The  Minnows  swam  in  and  out 
among  them,  and  hit  them  with  their  fins, 
and  slapped  them  with  their  tails,  and 
called  them  "  little-big-mouths,"  and  the 
Tadpoles  could  n't  hit  back  because  they 
were  so  little.  The  Minnows  did  n't  hurt 
the  Tadpoles,  but  they  made  fun  of  them, 
and  even  the  smallest  Minnow  would  swim 


The  Tadpole  61 

away  if  a  Tadpole  tried  to  play  with 
him. 

Then  the  Eels  talked  among  themselves 
about  them.  "  I  shall  be  glad,"  said  one 
old  Father  Eel,  "  when  these  youngsters 
hide  their  breathing-gills  and  go  to  the 
top  of  the  water." 

"  So  shall  I,"  exclaimed  a  Mother  Eel. 
"  They  keep  their  tails  wiggling  so  that  it 
hurts  my  eyes  to  look  at  them.  Why 
can't  they  lie  still  and  be  good  ?  " 

Now  the  Tadpoles  looked  at  each  other 
with  their  shining  black  eyes.  "  What 
are  our  breathing-gills  ? "  they  asked. 
"  They  must  be  these  little  things  on  the 
sides  of  our  heads." 

"  They  are  !  "  cried  the  First  Tadpole. 
"  The  Biggest  Frog  said  so.  But  I  don't 
see  where  we  can  hide  them,  because  they 
won't  come  off.  And  how  could  we  ever 
breathe  water  without  them  ?  " 

"  Hear  the  children  talk,"  exclaimed 
the  Green  Brown  Frog,  who  had  come 


62  Among  the  Pond  People 

down  to  look  the  Tadpoles  over  and  de- 
cide which  were  hers.  "  Why,  you  won't 
always  want  to  breathe  water.  Before 
long  you  will  have  to  breathe  air  by  swal- 
lowing it,  and  then  you  cannot  stay  long 
under  water.  I  must  go  now.  I  am 
quite  out  of  breath.  Good-bye  !  " 

Then  the  Tadpoles  looked  again  at 
each  other.  "  She  did  n't  tell  us  what  to 
do  with  our  breathing-gills,"  they  said. 
One  of  the  Tadpoles  who  had  hatched 
last,  swam  up  to  the  First  Tadpole. 
"  Your  breathing-gills  are  not  so  large  as 
mine,"  she  said. 

"  They  surely  are  !  "  he  exclaimed,  for 
he  felt  very  big  indeed,  having  been  the 
first  to  hatch. 

"  Oh,  but  they  are  not  !  "  cried  all  his 
friends.  "  They  don't  stick  out  as  they 
used  to."  And  that  was  true,  for  his 
breathing-gills  were  sinking  into  his  head, 
and  they  found  that  this  was  happening 
to  all  the  older  Tadpoles. 


THE  BIGGEST  FROG  TOLD  THEM  STORIES.  Page  63 


The  Tadpole  63 

The  next  day  they  began  going  to  the 
top  to  breathe  air,  the  oldest  ones  first, 
and  so  on  until  they  were  all  there.  They 
thought  it  much  pleasanter  than  the  bot- 
tom of  the  pond,  but  it  was  not  so  safe. 
There  were  more  dangers  to  be  watched 
for  here,  and  some  of  the  careless  young 
Tadpoles  never  lived  to  be  Frogs.  It  is 
sad,  yet  it  is  always  so. 

Sometimes  the  Frogs  came  to  see  them, 
and  once  —  once,  after  the  Tadpoles  had 
gotten  their  hindlegs,  the  Biggest  Frog 
sat  in  the  marsh  near  by  and  told  them 
stories  of  his  Tadpolehood.  He  said  that 
he  was  always  a  very  good  little  Tadpole, 
and  always  did  as  the  Frogs  told  him  to 
do  ;  and  that  he  was  such  a  promising  lit- 
tle fellow  that  every  Mother  Frog  in  the 
pond  was  sure  that  he  had  been  hatched 
from  one  of  her  eggs. 

"  And  were  you  ?  "  asked  one  Tadpole, 
who  never  listened  carefully,  and  so  was 
always  asking  stupid  questions. 


64  Among  the  Pond  People 

The  Biggest  Frog  looked  at  him  very 
sternly.  "  No,"  said  he,  "  I  was  not. 
Each  wanted  me  as  her  son,  but  I  never 
knew  to  which  I  belonged.  I  never 
knew  !  Still,"  he  added,  "  it  does  not  so 
much  matter  who  a  Frog's  mother  is,  if 
the  Frog  is  truly  great."  Then  he  filled 
the  sacs  on  each  side  of  his  neck  with  air, 
and  croaked  loudly.  His  sister  afterward 
told  the  Tadpoles  that  he  was  thinking  of 
one  of  the  forest  people,  the  Ground  Hog, 
who  was  very  proud  because  he  could  re- 
member his  grandfather. 

The  Green  Brown  Frog  came  often  to 
look  at  them  and  see  how  they  were 
growing.  She  was  very  fond  of  the  First 
Tadpole.  "  Why,  you  have  your  fore- 
legs ! "  she  exclaimed  one  morning.  "How 
you  do  grow  !  " 

"  What  will  I  have  next  ? "  he  asked, 
"  more  legs  or  another  tail  ?  " 

The  Green  Brown  Frog  smiled  the  whole 
length  of  her  mouth,  and  that  was  a  very 


The  Tadpole  65 

broad  smile  indeed.  "  Look  at  me,"  she 
said.  "  What  change  must  come  next  to 
make  you  look  like  a  Frog  ?  " 

"  You  have  n't  any  tail,"  he  said  slowly. 
"  Is  that  all  the  difference  between  us 
Tadpoles  and  Frogs  ?  " 

"  That  is  all  the  difference  now,"  she 
answered,  "but  it  will  take  a  long,  long 
time  for  your  tail  to  disappear.  It  will 
happen  with  that  quite  as  it  did  with  your 
breathing-gills.  You  will  grow  bigger  and 
bigger  and  bigger,  and  it  will  grow  smaller 
and  smaller  and  smaller,  until  some  day 
you  will  find  yourself  a  Frog."  She  shut 
her  mouth  to  get  her  breath,  because,  you 
know,  Frogs  can  only  breathe  a  little 
through  their  skins,  and  then  only  when 
they  are  wet.  Most  of  their  air  they  take 
in  through  their  noses  and  swallow  with 
their  mouths  closed.  That  is  why  they 
cannot  make  long  speeches.  When  their 
mouths  are  open  they  cannot  swallow  air. 

After  a  while  she  spoke  again.      "  It 


66  Among  the  Pond  People 

takes  as  many  years  to  make  a  newly 
hatched  Tadpole  into  a  fully  grown  Frog," 
she  said,  "  as  there  are  toes  on  one  of  your 
hindfeet." 

The  First  Tadpole  did  not  know  what 
a  year  was,  but  he  felt  sure  from  the  way 
in  which  she  spoke  that  it  was  a  long,  long 
time,  and  he  was  in  a  hurry  to  grow  up. 
"  I  want  to  be  a  Frog  sooner  ! "  he  said, 
crossly.  "  It  is  n't  any  fun  at  all  being  a 
Tadpole."  The  Green  Brown  Frog  swam 
away,  he  was  becoming  so  disagreeable. 

The  First  Tadpole  became  crosser  and 
crosser,  and  was  very  unreasonable.  He 
did  not  think  of  the  pleasant  things  which 
happened  every  day,  but  only  of  the  trying 
ones.  He  did  not  know  that  Frogs  often 
wished  themselves  Tadpoles  again,  and  he 
sulked  around  in  the  pondweed  all  day. 
Every  time  he  looked  at  one  of  his  hind- 
feet  it  reminded  him  of  what  the  Green 
Brown  Frog  had  said,  and  he  even  grew 
out  of  patience  with  his  tail  —  the  same 


The  Tadpole  67 

strong  wiggly  little  tail  of  which  he  had 
been  so  proud. 

"  Horrid  old  thing!"  he  said,  giving  it 
a  jerk.  "  Won't  I  be  glad  to  get  rid  of 
you  ?  "  Then  he  thought  of  something- 
foolish,  vain  little  First  Tadpole  that  he 
was.  He  thought  and  he  thought  and  he 
thought  and  he  thought,  and  when  his 
playmates  swam  around  him  he  would  n't 
chase  them,  and  when  they  asked  him 
what  was  the  matter,  he  just  answered, 
"  Oh  nothing  ! "  as  carelessly  as  could  be. 

The  truth  was  that  he  wanted  to  be  a 
Frog  right  away,  and  he  thought  he  knew 
how  he  could  be.  He  did  n't  want  to  tell 
the  other  Tadpoles  because  he  did  n't 
want  any  one  else  to  become  a  Frog  as 
soon  as  he.  After  a  while  he  swam  off  to 
see  the  Snapping  Turtle.  He  was  very 
much  afraid  of  the  Snapping  Turtle,  and 
yet  he  thought  him  the  best  one  to  see 
just  now.  "  I  came  to  see  if  you  would 
snap  off  my  tail,"  said  he. 


68  Among  the  Pond  People 

"  Your  what  ?"  said  the  Snapping  Tur- 
tle, in  his  most  surprised  way. 

"  My  tail,"  answered  the  First  Tadpole, 
who  had  never  had  a  tail  snapped  off,  and 
thought  it  could  be  easily  done.  "  I  want 
to  be  a  Frog  to-day  and  not  wait." 

"  Certainly,"  said  the  Snapping  Turtle. 
"  With  pleasure  !  No  trouble  at  all  ! 
Anything  else  I  can  do  for  you  ?  " 

"  No,  thank  you,"  said  the  First  Tad- 
pole, "  only  you  won't  snap  off  too  much, 
will  you  ?  " 

"  Not  a  bit,"  answered  the  Snapping 
Turtle,  with  a  queer  look  in  his  eyes. 
"  And  if  any  of  your  friends  are  in  a  hurry 
to  grow  up,  I  shall  be  glad  to  help  them." 
Then  he  swam  toward  the  First  Tadpole 
and  did  as  he  had  been  asked  to  do. 

The  next  morning  all  the  other  Tadpoles 
crowded  around  to  look  at  the  First  Tad- 
pole. "Why-ee!"  they  cried.  "  Where 
is  your  tail  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  he  answered,  "  but   I 


The  Tadpole  69 

think  the  Snapping  Turtle  could  tell 
you." 

"What  is  this?"  asked  the  Green 
Brown  Frog,  swimming  up  to  them. 
"  Did  the  Snapping  Turtle  try  to  catch 
you  ?  You  poor  little  fellow !  How 
did  it  happen  ? "  She  was  very  fond  of 
the  First  Tadpole,  and  had  about  decided 
that  he  must  be  one  of  her  sons. 

"  Well,"  he  said  slowly,  for  he  did  n't 
want  the  other  Tadpoles  to  do  the  same 
thing,  "  I  met  him  last  evening  and  he- 

"  Snapped  at  you ! "  exclaimed  the 
Green  Brown  Frog.  "  It  is  lucky  for 
you  that  he  does  n't  believe  in  eating 
hearty  suppers,  that  is  all  I  have  to  say ! 
But  you  are  a  very  foolish  Tadpole  not 
to  keep  out  of  his  way,  as  you  have  always 
been  told  you  must." 

Then  the  First  Tadpole  lost  his  temper. 
"  I  'm  not  foolish,  and  I  'm  not  a  Tadpole," 
he  said.  "  I  asked  him  to  snap  it  off,  and 
now  I  am  a  Frog  ! " 


70  Among  the  Pond  People 

"  Oho  !  "  said  the  voice  of  the  Yellow 
Brown  Frog  behind  him.  "  You  are  a 
Frog,  are  you  ?  Let 's  hear  you  croak 
then.  Come  out  on  the  bank  and  have  a 
hopping  match  with  me." 

"  I — I  don't  croak  yet,"  stammered  the 
First  Tadpole,  "  a — and  I  don't  care  to 
hop." 

"You  are  just  a  tailless  Tadpole,"  said 
the  Yellow  Brown  Frog  sternly.  "  Don't 
any  more  of  you  youngsters  try  such  a 
plan,  or  some  of  you  will  be  Tadpole-less 
tails  and  a  good  many  of  you  won't  be 
anything." 

The  old  Snapping  Turtle  waited  all 
morning  for  some  more  Tadpoles  who 
wanted  to  be  made  into  Frogs,  but  none 
came.  The  Biggest  Frog  croaked 
hoarsely  when  he  heard  of  it.  "  Tails  ! 
Tails  !  Tails  !  Tails  !  Tails  !  Tails  !  Tails  ! 
Tails  !  "  said  he.  "  That  youngster  will 
never  be  a  strong  Frog.  Tadpoles  must 
be  Tadpoles,  tails  and  all,  for  a  long  time, 


The  Tadpole  71 

if  they  hope  to  ever  be  really  fine  Frogs 
like  me."  And  that  is  so,  as  any  Frog 
will  tell  you. 

The  Green  Brown  Frog  sighed  as  she 
crawled  out  on  the  bank.  "  What  a  silly 
Tadpole,"  she  said ;  "  I'm  glad  he  is  n't 
my  child ! " 


THE   RUNAWAY  WATER 
SPIDERS 

TXJTHEN  the  little  Water  Spiders  first 
"  *  opened  their  eyes,  and  this  was  as 
soon  as  they  were  hatched,  they  found 
themselves  in  a  cosy  home  of  one  room 
which  their  mother  had  built  under  the 
water.  This  room  had  no  window  and 
only  one  door.  There  was  no  floor  at  all. 
When  Father  Stickleback  had  asked  Mrs. 
Spider  why  she  did  not  make  a  floor,  she 
had  looked  at  him  in  great  surprise  and 
said,  "  Why,  if  I  had  built  one,  I  should 
have  no  place  to  go  in  and  out."  She 
really  thought  him  quite  stupid  not  to 
think  of  that.  It  often  happens,  you  know, 
that  really  clever  people  think  each  other 
stupid,  just  because  they  live  in  different 
72 


The  Runaway  Water  Spiders       73 

ways.  Afterward,  Mrs.  Water  Spider  saw 
Father  Stickleback's  nest,  and  understood 
why  he  asked  that  question. 

When  her  home  was  done,  it  was  half 
as  large  as  a  big  acorn  and  a  charming 
place  for  Water  Spider  babies.  The  side 
walls  and  the  rounding  ceiling  were  all  of 
the  finest  Spider  silk,  and  the  bottom  was 
just  one  round  doorway.  The  house  was 
built  under  the  water  and  fastened  down 
by  tiny  ropes  of  Spider  silk  which  were 
tied  to  the  stems  of  pond  plants.  Mrs. 
Water  Spider  looked  at  it  with  a  happy 
smile.  "  Next  I  must  fill  it  with  air,"  said 
she,  "  and  then  it  will  be  ready.  I  am  out 
of  breath  now." 

She  crept  up  the  stem  of  the  nearest 
plant  and  sat  in  the  air  for  a  few  minutes, 
eating  her  lunch  and  resting.  Next  she 
walked  down  the  stem  until  just  the  end 
of  her  body  was  in  the  air.  She  stood  so, 
with  her  head  down,  then  gave  a  little 
jerk  and  dove  to  her  home.  As  she 


74  Among  the  Pond  People 

jerked,  she  crossed  her  hindlegs  and 
caught  a  small  bubble  of  air  between  them 
and  her  body.  When  she  reached  her 
home,  she  went  quickly  in  the  open  door- 
way and  let  go  of  her  bubble.  It  did  not 
fall  downward  to  the  floor,  as  bubbles  do 
in  most  houses,  and  there  were  two  rea- 
sons for  this.  In  the  first  place,  there  was 
no  floor.  In  the  second  place,  air  always 
falls  upward  in  the  water.  This  fell  up  un- 
til it  reached  the  rounded  ceiling  and  had 
to  stop.  Just  as  it  fell,  a  drop  of  water 
went  out  through  the  open  doorway.  The 
home  had  been  full  of  water,  you  know,  but 
now  that  Mrs.  Spider  had  begun  to  bring 
in  air  something  had  to  be  moved  to  make 
a  place  for  it. 

She  brought  down  thirteen  more  bub- 
bles of  air  and  then  the  house  was  filled 
with  it.  On  the  lower  side  of  the  open 
doorway  there  was  water  and  on  the  upper 
side  was  air,  and  each  stayed  where  it 
should.  When  Mrs.  Spider  came  into  her 


The  Runaway  Water  Spiders       75 

house,  she  always  had  some  air  caught  in 
the  hairs  which  covered  her  body,  even 
when  she  did  not  bring  a  bubble  of  it  in 
her  hindlegs.  She  had  to  have  plenty  of 
it  in  her  home  to  keep  her  from  drown- 
ing, for  she  could  not  breathe  water  like  a 
fish.  "Side  doors  may  be  all  right  for 
Sticklebacks,"  said  she,  "for  they  do  not 
need  air,  but  I  must  have  bottom  doors, 
and  I  will  have  them  too  ! " 

After  she  had  laid  her  eggs,  she  had 
some  days  in  which  to  rest  and  visit  with 
the  Water-Boatmen  who  lived  near.  They 
were  great  friends.  Belostoma  used  to 
ask  the  Water-Boatmen,  who  were  his 
cousins,  why  they  were  so  neighborly  with 
the  Water  Spiders.  "  I  don't  like  to  see 
you  so  much  with  eight-legged  people," 
he  said.  "They  are  not  our  kind."  Bel- 
ostoma was  very  proud  of  his  family. 

"  We  know  that  they  have  rather  too 
many  legs  to  look  well,"  said  Mrs.  Water- 
Boatman,  "  but  they  are  pleasant,  and  we 


76  Among  the  Pond  People 

are  interested  in  the  same  things.  You 
know  we  both  carry  air  about  with  us  in 
the  water,  and  so  few  of  our  neighbors 
seem  to  care  anything  for  it."  She  was  a 
sensible  little  person  and  knew  that  peo- 
ple who  are  really  fond  of  their  friends  do 
not  care  how  many  legs  they  have.  She 
carried  her  air  under  her  wings,  but  there 
were  other  Water-Boatmen,  near  relatives, 
who  spread  theirs  over  their  whole  bodies, 
and  looked  very  silvery  and  beautiful 
when  they  were  under  water. 

One  day,  when  Mrs.  Water  Spider  was 
sitting  on  a  lily-pad  and  talking  with  her 
friends,  a  Water-Boatman  rose  quickly 
from  the  bottom  of  the  pond.  As  soon 
as  he  got  right  side  up  (and  that  means 
as  soon  as  he  got  to  floating  on  his  back), 
he  said  to  her,  "  I  heard  queer  sounds  in 
your  house ;  I  was  feeding  near  there, 
and  the  noise  startled  me  so  that  I  let  go 
of  the  stone  I  was  holding  to,  and  came 
up.  I  think  your  eggs  must  be  hatching." 


AS  SOON  AS  HE  GOT  TO  FLOATING  ON   HIS  BACK.  Page  76 


The  Runaway  Water  Spiders        77 

"  Really  ?  "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Water  Spi- 
der. "  I  shall  be  so  glad  !  A  house  al- 
ways seems  lonely  to  me  without  children." 
She  dove  to  her  house,  and  found  some 
very  fine  Water  Spider  babies  there.  You 
may  be  sure  she  did  not  have  much  time 
for  visiting  after  that.  She  had  to  hunt 
food  and  carry  it  down  to  her  children, 
and  when  they  were  restless  and  impa- 
tient she  stayed  with  them  and  told  them 
stories  of  the  great  world. 

Sometimes  they  teased  to  go  out  with 
her,  but  this  she  never  allowed.  "  Wait 
until  you  are  older,"  she  would  say.  4i  It 
will  not  be  so  very  long  before  you  can 
go  safely."  The  children  thought  it  had 
been  a  long,  long  time  already,  and  one 
of  them  made  a  face  when  his  mother  said 
this.  She  did  not  see  him,  and  it  was 
well  for  him  that  she  did  not.  He  should 
have  been  very  much  ashamed  of  himself 
for  doing  it. 

The  next  time  Mrs.  Water  Spider  went 


78  Among  the  Pond  People 

for  food,  one  of  the  children  said,  "  I  tell 
you  what  let 's  do  !  Let 's  all  go  down  to 
the  doorway  and  peek  out."  They  looked 
at  each  other  and  wondered  if  they  dared. 
That  was  something  their  mother  had 
forbidden  them  to  do.  There  was  no 
window  to  look  through  and  they  wanted 
very  much  to  see  the  world.  At  last  the 
little  fellow  who  had  made  a  face  said, 
"  I  'm  going  to,  anyway."  After  that,  his 
brothers  and  sisters  went,  too.  And  this 
shows  how,  if  good  little  Spiders  listen 
to  naughty  little  Spiders,  they  become 
naughty  little  Spiders  themselves. 

All  the  children  ran  down  and  peeked 
around  the  edge  of  the  door,  but  they 
could  n't  see  much  besides  water,  and  they 
had  seen  that  before.  They  were  sadly 
disappointed.  Somebody  said,  "  I  'm  go- 
ing to  put  two  of  my  legs  out  !  "  Some- 
body else  said,  "  I'll  put  four  out  !  "  A 
big  brother  said,  "  I  'm  going  to  put 
six  out ! "  And  then  another  brother 


The  Runaway  Water  Spiders       79 

said  "  I  '11  put  eight  out  !  Dare  you 
to!" 

You  know  what  naughty  little  Spiders 
would  be  likely  to  do  then.  Well,  they 
did  it.  And,  as  it  happened,  they  had 
just  pulled  their  last  legs  through  the 
open  doorway  when  a  Stickleback  Father 
came  along.  "  Are  n't  you  rather  young 
to  be  out  of  the  nest  ?  "  said  he,  in  his 
most  pleasant  voice. 

Poor  little  Water  Spiders!  They 
did  n't  know  he  was  one  of  their  mother's 
friends,  and  he  seemed  so  big  to  them, 
and  the  bones  on  his  cheeks  made  him 
look  so  queer,  and  the  stickles  on  his  back 
were  so  sharp,  that  every  one  of  them 
was  afraid  and  let  go  of  the  wall  of  the 
house  —  and  then  ! 

Every  one  of  them  rose  quickly  to  the 
top,  into  the  light  and  the  open  air.  They 
crawled  upon  a  lily-pad  and  clung  there, 
frightened,  and  feeling  weak  in  all  their 
knees.  The  Dragon  Flies  flew  over 


8o  Among  the  Pond  People 

them,  the  Wild  Ducks  swam  past  them, 
and  on  a  log  not  far  away  they  saw  a  long 
row  of  Mud  Turtles  sunning  themselves. 
Why  nothing  dreadful  happened,  one  can- 
not tell.  Perhaps  it  was  bad  enough  as 
it  was,  for  they  were  so  scared  that  they 
could  only  huddle  close  together  and  cry, 
"  We  want  our  mother." 

Here  Mrs.  Water  Spider  found  them. 
She  came  home  with  something  for  din- 
ner, and  saw  her  house  empty.  Of  course 
she  knew  where  to  look,  for,  as  she  said, 
"  If  they  stepped  outside  the  door,  they 
would  be  quite  sure  to  tumble  up  into 
the  air."  She  took  them  home,  one  at  a 
time,  and  how  she  ever  did  it  nobody 
knows. 

When  they  were  all  safely  there  and 
had  eaten  the  food  that  was  waiting  for 
them,  Mrs.  Spider,  who  had  not  scolded 
them  at  all,  said,  "  Look  me  straight  in 
the  eye,  every  one  of  you  !  Will  you 
promise  never  to  run  away  again  ?" 


The  Runaway  Water  Spiders       81 

Instead  of  saying  at  once,  "Yes,  moth- 
er," as  they  should  have  done,  one  of 
them  answered,  "  Why,  we  did  n't  run 
away.  We  were  just  peeking  around  the 
edge  of  the  doorway,  and  we  got  too  far 
out,  and  somebody  came  along  and  scared 
us  so  that  we  let  go,  and  then  we  could  n't 
help  falling  up  into  the  air." 

44  Oh,  no,"  said  their  mother,  "you 
could  n't  help  it  then,  of  course.  But 
who  told  you  that  you  might  peep  out  of 
the  door?" 

The  little  Water  Spiders  hung  their 
heads  and  looked  very  much  ashamed. 
Their  mother  went  on,  "  You  need  n't 
say  that  you  were  not  to  blame.  You 
were  to  blame,  and  you  began  to  run 
away  as  soon  as  you  took  the  first  step 
toward  the  door,  only  you  did  n't  know 
that  you  were  going  so  far.  Tell  me," 
she  said,  "whether  you  would  ever  have 
gone  to  the  top  of  the  water  if  you  had 
not  taken  that  first  step  ?  " 


82  Among  the  Pond  People 

The  little  Water  Spiders  were  more 
ashamed  than  ever,  but  they  had  to  look 
her  in  the  eye  and  promise  to  be  good. 

It  is  very  certain  that  not  one  of  those 
children  even  peeped  around  the  edge  of 
the  doorway  from  that  day  until  their 
mother  told  them  that  they  might  go  into 
the  world  and  build  houses  for  them- 
selves. "  Remember  just  one  thing,"  she 
said,  as  they  started  away.  "  Always 
take  your  food  home  to  eat."  And  they 
always  did,  for  no  Water  Spider  who  has 
been  well  brought  up  will  ever  eat  away 
from  his  own  home. 


THE  SLOW  LITTLE  MUD 
TURTLE 


the  twenty  little  Mud  Turtles 
broke  their  egg-shells  one  hot 
summer  day,  and  poked  their  way  up 
through  the  warm  sand  in  which  they  had 
been  buried,  they  looked  almost  as  much 
alike  as  so  many  raindrops.  The  Mother 
Turtle  who  was  sunning  herself  on  the 
bank  near  by,  said  to  her  friends,  "  Why  ! 
There  are  my  children  !  Did  you  ever 
see  a  finer  family  ?  I  believe  I  will  go 
over  and  speak  to  them." 

Most  of  the  young  Mud  Turtles 
crawled  quickly  out  of  the  sand  and 
broken  shells,  and  began  drying  them- 
selves in  the  sunshine.  One  slow  little 
fellow  stopped  to  look  at  the  broken 
83 


84  Among  the  Pond  People 

shells,  stubbed  one  of  his  front  toes  on  a 
large  piece  and  then  sat  down  until  it, 
should  stop  aching.  "  Wait  for  me!" 
he  called  out  to  his  brothers  and  sisters. 
"  I  'm  coming  in  a  minute." 

The  other  little  Turtles  waited,  but 
when  his  toe  was  comfortable  again  and 
he  started  toward  them,  he  met  a  very  in- 
teresting Snail  and  talked  a  while  with 
him.  "  Come  on,"  said  the  Biggest  Lit- 
tle Turtle.  "  Don't  let 's  wait  any  longer. 
He  can  catch  up." 

So  they  sprawled  along  until  they  came 
to  a  place  where  they  could  sit  in  a  row  on 
an  old  log,  and  they  climbed  onto  it  and 
sat  just  close  enough  together  and  not  at 
all  too  close.  Then  the  Slow  Little  Tur- 
tle came  hurrying  over  the  sand  with  a 
rather  cross  look  in  his  eyes  and  putting 
his  feet  down  a  little  harder  than  he 
needed  to  —  quite  as  though  he  were 
out  of  patience  about  something. 
"  Why  did  n't  you  Turtles  wait  for 


The  Slow  Little  Mud  Turtle        85 

me?"  he  grumbled.  "I  was  coming 
right  along." 

Just  then  the  Mother  Turtle  came  up. 
"  Good  morning,"  said  she.  "  I  believe 
you  are  my  children  ?  " 

The  little  Mud  Turtles  looked  at  each 
other  and  did  n't  say  a  word.  This  was 
not  because  they  were  rude  or  bashful, 
but  because  they  did  not  know  what  to 
say.  And  that,  you  know,  was  quite  right, 
for  unless  one  has  something  worth  say- 
ing, it  is  far  better  to  say  nothing  at  all. 

She  drew  a  long  Mud  Turtle  breath  and 
answered  her  own  question.  "Yes,"  she 
said,  "you  certainly  are,  for  I  saw  you 
scrambling  out  of  the  sand  a  little  while  ago, 
and  you  came  from  the  very  place  where  I 
laid  my  eggs  and  covered  them  during  the 
first  really  warm  nights  this  year.  I  was 
telling  your  father  only  yesterday  that  it 
was  about  time  for  you  to  hatch.  The  sun 
has  been  so  hot  lately  that  I  was  sure  you 
would  do  well." 


86  Among  the  Pond  People 

The  Mother  Turtle  stretched  her  head 
this  way  and  that  until  there  was  hardly  a 
wrinkle  left  in  her  neck-skin,  she  was  so 
eager  to  see  them  all.  "  Why  are  you  not 
up  here  with  your  brothers  and.  sisters  ?" 
she  asked  suddenly  of  the  Slow  Little 
Turtle,  who  was  trying  to  make  a  place  for 
himself  on  the  log. 

"  They  did  n't  wait  for  me,"  he  said.  "  I 
was  coming  right  along  but  they  would  n't 
wait.  I  think  they  are  just  as  mea  - 

The  Mother  Turtle  raised  one  of  her 
forefeet  until  all  five  of  its  toes  with  their 
strong  claws  were  pointing  at  him.  She 
also  raised  her  head  as  far  as  her  upper 
shell  would  let  her.  "  So  you  are  the 
one,"  she  said.  "  I  thought  you  were 
when  I  heard  you  trying  to  make  the 
others  wait.  It  is  too  bad." 

She  looked  so  stern  that  the  Slow  Lit- 
tle Turtle  did  n't  dare  finish  what  he  had 
begun  to  say,  yet  down  in  his  little  Turtle 
heart  he  thought,  "  Now  they  are  going 


The  Slow  Little  Mud  Turtle        87 

to  catch  it !  "  He  was  sure  his  mother  was 
going  to  scold  the  other  Turtle  children 
for  leaving  him.  He  wanted  to  see  what 
they  would  do,  so  he  looked  out  of  his 
right  eye  at  the  ten  brothers  and  sisters  on 
that  side,  and  out  of  his  left  eye  at  the  nine 
brothers  and  sisters  on  that  side.  He  could 
do  this  very  easily,  because  his  eyes  were 
not  on  the  front  of  his  head  like  those 
of  some  people,  but  one  on  each  side. 

"  I  have  raised  families  of  young  Tur- 
tles every  year,"  said  the  Mother  Turtle. 
"  The  first  year  I  had  only  a  few  children, 
the  next  year  I  had  more,  and  so  it  has 
gone  —  every  year  a  few  more  children 
than  the  year  before  —  until  now  I  never 
know  quite  how  many  I  do  have.  But 
there  is  always  one  Slow  Little  Turtle 
who  lags  behind  and  wants  the  others  to 
wait  for  him.  That  makes  him  miss  his 
share  of  good  things,  and  then  he  is  quite 
certain  to  be  cross  and  think  it  is  some- 
body else's  fault." 


88  Among  the  Pond  People 

The  Slow  Little  Turtle  felt  the  ten 
brothers  and  sisters  on  his  right  side  look- 
ing at  him  out  of  their  left  eyes,  and  the 
nine  brothers  and  sisters  on  his  left  side 
looking  at  him  out  of  their  right  eyes. 
He  drew  in  his  head  and  his  tail  and  his 
legsf  until  all  they  could  see  was  his 
rounded  upper  shell,  his  shell  side-walls, 
and  the  yellow  edge  of  his  flat  lower 
shell.  He  would  have  liked  to  draw  them 
in  too,  but  of  course  he  could  n't  do  that. 

"  I  did  hope,"  said  the  Mother  Turtle, 
"that  I  might  have  one  family  without 
such  a  child  in  it.  I  cannot  help  loving 
even  a  slow  child  who  is  cross,  if  he  is 
hatched  from  one  of  my  eggs,  yet  it  makes 
me  sad  —  very,  very  sad." 

"  Try  to  get  over  this,"  she  said  to  the 
Slow  Little  Turtle,  "  before  it  is  too  late. 
And  you,"  she  added,  turning  to  his 
brothers  and  sisters,  "  must  be  patient 
with  him.  We  shall  not  have  him  with 
us  long." 


The  Slow  Little  Mud  Turtle        89 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  asked  the  Slow 
Little  Turtle,  peeping  out  from  between 
his  shells.  "  I  'm  not  going  away." 

"  You  do  not  want  to,"  said  his  mother, 
"  but  you  will  not  be  with  us  long  unless 
you  learn  to  keep  up  with  the  rest.  Some- 
thing always  happens  to  pond  people  who 
are  too  slow.  I  cannot  tell  you  what  it 
will  be,  yet  it  is  sure  to  be  something.  I 
remember  so  well  my  first  slow  child  — 
and  how  he  -  She  began  to  cry,  and 
since  she  could  not  easily  get  her  forefeet 
to  her  eyes,  she  sprawled  to  the  pond 
and  swam  off  with  only  her  head  and  a 
little  of  her  upper  shell  showing  above 
the  water. 

The  Slow  Little  Turtle  was  really 
frightened  by  what  his  mother  had  said, 
and  for  a  few  days  he  tried  to  keep  up 
with  the  others.  Nothing  happened  to 
him,  and  so  he  grew  careless  and  made 
people  wait  for  him  just  because  he  was 
not  quite  ready  to  go  with  them,  or  be- 


go  Among  the  Pond  People 

cause  he  wanted  to  do  this  or  look  at  that 
or  talk  to  some  other  person.  He  was  a 
very  trying  little  Turtle,  yet  his  mother 
loved  him  and  did  not  like  it  when  the 
rest  called  him  a  Land  Tortoise.  It  is  all 
right,  you  know,  to  be  a  Land  Tortoise 
when  your  father  and  mother  are  Land 
Tortoises,  and  these  cousins  of  the  Tur- 
tles look  so  much  like  them  that  some 
people  cannot  tell  them  apart.  That  is 
because  they  forget  that  the  Tortoises 
live  on  land,  have  higher  back  shells,  and 
move  very,  very  slowly.  Turtles  live 
more  in  the  water  and  can  move  quickly 
if  they  will.  This  is  why  other  Turtles 
sometimes  make  fun  of  a  slow  brother 
by  calling  him  a  Land  Tortoise. 

One  beautiful  sunshiny  afternoon,  when 
most  of  the  twenty  little  Turtles  were 
sitting  on  a  floating  log  by  the  edge  of 
the  pond,  their  mother  was  with  some  of 
her  friends  on  another  log  near  by.  She 
looked  often  at  her  children,  and  thought 


The  Slow  Little  Mud  Turtle        91 

how  handsome  their  rounded -up  back 
shells  were  in  the  sunshine  with  the  little 
red  and  yellow  markings  showing  on  the 
black.  She  could  see  their  strong  little 
pointed  tails  too,  and  their  webbed  feet 
with  a  stout  claw  on  each  toe.  She  was 
so  proud  that  she  could  not  help  talking 
about  them.  "  Is  there  any  sight  more 
beautiful,"  she  said,  "  than  a  row  of  good 
little  Turtles  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  a  fine  old  fellow  who  was 
floating  near  her,  "  a  row  of  their  moth- 
ers ! "  He  was  a  Turtle  whom  she 
had  never  liked  very  well,  but  now  she 
began  to  think  that  he  was  rather  agree- 
able after  all.  She  was  just  noticing  how 
beautifully  the  skin  wrinkled  on  his  neck, 
when  she  heard  a  splash  and  saw  two 
terrible  great  two-legged  animals  wading 
into  the  pond  from  the  shore. 

"  Boys  ! "  she  cried,  "  Boys  !  "  And 
she  sprawled  off  the  end  of  her  log  and 
slid  into  the  water,  all  her  friends  follow- 


92  Among  the  Pond  People 

ing  her.  The  Biggest  Little  Turtle  saw 
these  great  animals  coming  toward  him. 
He  sprawled  off  the  end  of  his  log  and 
slid  into  the  water,  and  all  his  brothers 
and  sisters  followed  him  except  the  Slow 
Little  Turtle.  "  Wait  for  me,"  he  said. 
"  I  'm  coming  in  just  a  — 

Then  one  of  these  great  animals  stooped 
over  and  picked  him  up,  and  held  him  bot- 
tom side  uppermost  and  rapped  on  that 
side,  which  was  flat ;  and  on  the  other 
side,  which  was  rounded  ;  and  stared  at 
him  with  two  great  eyes.  Next  the  other 
great  animal  took  him  and  turned  him 
over  and  rapped  on  his  shells  and  stared 
at  him.  The  poor  Slow  Little  Turtle 
drew  in  his  head  and  tail  and  legs  and 
kept  very,  very  still.  He  wished  that  he 
had  side-pieces  of  shell  all  around  now, 
instead  of  just  one  on  each  side  between 
his  legs.  He  was  thinking  over  and  over, 
"  Something  has  happened  !  Something 
has  happened  !  "  And  he  knew  that  back 


The  Slow  Little  Mud  Turtle        93 

in  the  pond  his  mother  would  be  trying  to 
find  him  and  could  not. 

The  boys  carried  him  to  the  edge  of 
the  meadow  and  put  him  down  on  the 
grass.  He  lay  perfectly  still  for  a  long, 
long  time,  and  when  he  thought  they  had 
forgotten  about  him  he  tried  to  run  away. 
Then  they  laughed  and  picked  him  up 
again,  and  one  of  them  took  something 
sharp  and  shiny  and  cut  marks  into  his 
upper  shell.  This  did  not  really  give  him 
pain,  yet,  as  he  said  afterward,  "It  hurts 
almost  as  much  to  think  you  are  going  to 
be  hurt,  as  it  does  to  be  hurt." 

It  was  not  until  the  sun  went  down  that 
the  boys  let  the  Slow  Little  Turtle  go. 
Then  he  was  very,  very  tired,  but  he 
wanted  so  much  to  get  back  to  his  home 
in  the  pond  that  he  started  at  once  by 
moonlight.  This  was  the  first  time  he 
had  ever  seen  the  moon,  for,  except  when 
they  are  laying  eggs,  Turtles  usually  sleep 
at  night.  He  was  not  quite  sure  which 


94  Among  the  Pond  People 

way  he  should  go,  and  if  it  had  not  been 
for  the  kindness  of  the  Tree  Frog  he 
might  never  have  seen  his  brothers  and 
sisters  again.  You  know  the  Tree  Frog 
had  been  carried  away  when  he  was 
young,  before  he  came  to  live  with  the 
meadow  people,  so  he  knew  how  to  be 
sorry  for  the  Slow  Little  Turtle. 

The  Tree  Frog  hopped  along  ahead  to 
show  the  way,  and  the  Turtle  followed  until 
they  reached  a  place  from  which  they  could 
see  the  pond.  "  Good  night ! "  said  the 
Tree  Frog.  "  You  can  find  your  way  now." 

"Good  night!"  said  the  Turtle.  "I 
wish  I  might  help  you  some  time." 

"  Never  mind  me,"  said  the  Tree  Frog. 
"  Help  somebody  else  and  it  will  be  all 
right."  He  hopped  back  toward  his 
home,  and  for  a  long  time  afterward  the 
Turtle  heard  his  cheerful  "  Pukr-r-rup  ! 
Pukr-r-rup  ! "  sounding  over  the  dewy 
grass  and  through  the  still  air.  At  the 
edge  of  the  pond  the  Slow  Little  Turtle 


The  Slow  Little  Mud  Turtle        95 

found  his  nineteen  brothers  and  sisters 
sound  asleep.  "  I'  m  here  !  "  he  cried 
joyfully,  poking  first  one  and  then  an- 
other of  them  with  his  head. 

The  Biggest  Little  Turtle  moved  with- 
out awakening.  "  I  tell  you  I'  m  not 
hungry,"  he  murmured.  "  I  don't  want 
to  get  up."  And  again  he  fell  fast  asleep. 

So  the  Slow  Little  Turtle  did  not  dis- 
turb him,  but  cuddled  inside  his  two  shells 
and  went  to  sleep  also.  He  was  so  tired 
that  he  did  not  awaken  until  the  sun  was 
high  in  the  sky.  When  he  did  open  his 
eyes,  his  relatives  were  sitting  around 
looking  at  him,  and  he  remembered  all  that 
had  happened  before  he  slept.  "  Does 
my  shell  look  very  bad  ?  "  he  cried.  "  I 
wish  I  could  see  it.  Oh,  I  am  so  glad 
to  get  back  !  I  '11  never  be  slow  again, 
Never  !  Never  !  " 

His  mother  came  and  leaned  her  shell 
lovingly  against  his.  "  If  you  will  only 
learn  to  keep  up  with  your  brothers  and 


96  Among  the  Pond  People 

sisters,"  she  said  "  I  shall  not  be  sorry 
that  the  boys  carried  you  off." 

"  You  just  wait  and  see,"  said  the  Slow 
Little  Turtle.  And  he  was  as  good  as 
his  word.  After  that  he  was  always  the 
first  to  slip  from  the  log  to  the  water  if 
anything  scared  them ;  and  when,  one 
day,  a  strange  Turtle  from  another  pond 
came  to  visit,  he  said  to  the  Turtles  who 
had  always  lived  there,  "  Why  do  you 
call  that  young  fellow  with  the  marked 
shell  '  The  Slow  Little  Turtle  ?  '  He  is 
the  quickest  one  in  his  family." 

The  pond  people  looked  at  each  other 
and  laughed.  "  That  is  queer  ! "  they 
said.  "  After  this  we  will  call  him  'The 
Quick  Little  Turtle.'" 

This  made  him  very  happy,  and  when, 
once  in  a  while,  somebody  forgot  and  by 
mistake  called  him  "  The  Quick  Slow 
Little  Turtle,"  he  said  he  rather  liked 
it  because  it  showed  that  a  Turtle  need  n't 
keep  his  faults  if  he  did  have  them. 


THE    DRAGON-FLY    CHILDREN 
AND  THE  SNAPPING  TURTLE 


T^HE  Dragon-Flies  have  always  lived 
near  the  pond.  Not  the  same  ones 
that  are  there  now,  of  course,  but  the 
great  -great  -great  -grandfathers  of  these. 
A  person  would  think  that,  after  a  family 
had  lived  so  long  in  a  place,  all  the  neigh- 
bors would  be  fond  of  them,  yet  it  is  not 
so.  The  Dragon-Flies  may  be  very  good 
people  —  and  even  the  Snapping  Turtle 
says  that  they  are  —  still,  they  are  so 
peculiar  that  many  of  their  neighbors  do 
not  like  them  at  all.  Even  when  they 
are  only  larvae,  or  babies,  they  are  not 
good  playmates,  for  they  have  such  a  bad 
habit  of  putting  everything  into  their 
mouths.  Indeed,  the  Stickleback  Father 

97 


98  Among  the  Pond  People 

once  told  the  little  Sticklebacks  that  they 
should  not  stir  out  of  the  nest,  unless 
they  would  promise  to  keep  away  from 
the  young  Dragon-Flies. 

The  Stickleback  Mothers  said  that  it 
was  all  the  fault  of  the  Dragon -Fly 
Mothers.  "  What  can  you  expect,"  ex- 
claimed one  of  them,  "when  Dragon-Fly 
eggs  are  so  carelessly  laid  ?  I  saw  a 
Dragon  -  Fly  Mother  laying  some  only 
yesterday,  and  how  do  you  suppose  she 
did  it  ?  Just  flew  around  in  the  sunshine 
and  visited  with  her  friends,  and  once  in  a 
while  flew  low  enough  to  touch  the  water 
and  drop  one  in.  It  is  disgraceful  ! " 

The  Minnow  Mothers  did  not  think 
it  was  so  much  in  the  way  the  eggs  were 
laid,  "  although,"  said  one,  "  I  always  lay 
mine  close  together,  instead  of  scatter- 
ing them  over  the  whole  pond."  They 
thought  the  trouble  came  from  bad  bring- 
ing up  or  no  bringing  up  at  all.  Each 
egg,  you  know,  when  it  is  laid,  drops  to 


The  Dragon-Fly  Children          99 

the  bottom  of  the  pond,  and  the  children 
are  hatched  and  grow  up  there,  and  do 
not  even  see  their  fathers  and  mothers. 

Now  most  of  the  larvae  were  turn- 
ing into  Nymphs,  which  are  half-grown 
Dragon  Flies.  They  had  been  short  and 
plump,  and  now  they  were  longer  and 
more  slender,  and  there  were  little 
bunches  on  their  shoulders  where  the 
wings  were  growing  under  their  skin. 
They  had  outgrown  their  old  skins  a 
great  many  times,  and  had  to  wriggle 
out  of  them  to  be  at  all  comfortable. 
When  a  Dragon-Fly  child  became  too 
big  for  his  skin,  he  hooked  the  two  sharp 
claws  of  each  of  his  six  feet  firmly  into 
something,  unfastened  his  skin  down  the 
back,  and  wriggled  out,  leaving  it  to  roll 
around  in  the  water  until  it  became  just 
part  of  the  mud. 

Like  most  growing  children,  the  Dra- 
gon-Fly larvae  and  Nymphs  had  to  eat  a 
great  deal.  Their  stomachs  were  as  long 


ioo          Among  the  Pond  People 

as  their  bodies,  and  they  were  never 
really  happy  unless  their  stomachs  were 
full.  They  always  ate  plain  food  and 
plenty  of  it,  and  they  never  ate  between 
meals.  They  had  breakfast  from  the 
time  they  awakened  in  the  morning  until 
the  sun  was  high  in  the  sky,  then  they 
had  dinner  until  the  sun  was  low  in  the 
sky,  and  supper  from  that  time  until  it 
grew  dark  and  they  went  to  sleep  :  but 
never  a  mouthful  between  meals,  no 
matter  how  hungry  they  might  be.  They 
said  this  was  their  only  rule  about  eating, 
and  they  would  keep  it. 

They  were  always  slow  children.  You 
would  think  that,  with  six  legs  apiece  and 
three  joints  in  each  leg,  they  might  walk 
quite  fast,  yet  they  never  did.  When 
they  had  to,  they  hurried  in  another  way 
by  taking  a  long  leap  through  the  water. 
Of  course  they  breathed  water  like  their 
neighbors,  the  fishes  and  the  Tadpoles. 
They  did  not  breathe  it  into  their  mouths, 


The  Dragon-Fly  Children         101 

or  through  gills,  but  took  it  in  through 
some  openings  in  the  back  part  of  their 
bodies.  When  they  wanted  to  hurry, 
they  breathed  this  water  out  so  suddenly 
that  it  sent  them  quickly  ahead. 

The  Snapping  Turtle  had  called  them 
"  bothering  bugs  "  one  day  when  he  was 
cross  (and  that  was  the  day  after  he  had 
been  cross,  and  just  before  the  day  when 
he  was  going  to  be  cross  again),  and  they 
did  n't  like  him  and  wanted  to  get  even. 
They  all  put  their  queer  little  three- 
cornered  heads  together,  and  there  was 
an  ugly  look  in  their  great  staring  eyes. 

"  Horrid  old  thing ! "  said  one  larva. 
"  I  wish  I  could  sting  him." 

"  Well,  you  can't,"  said  a  Nymph,  turn- 
ing towards  him  so  suddenly  that  he 
leaped.  "  You  have  n't  any  sting,  and 
you  never  will  have,  so  you  just  keep 
still."  It  was  not  at  all  nice  in  her  to 
speak  that  way,  but  she  was  not  well 
brought  up,  you  know,  and  that,  perhaps, 


IO2          Among  the  Pond  People 

is  a  reason  why  one  should  excuse  her 
for  talking  so  to  her  little  brother.  She 
was  often  impatient,  and  said  she  could 
never  go  anywhere  without  one  of  the 
larvae  tagging  along. 

"  I  tell  you  what  let  's  do,"  said  an- 
other Nymph.  "  Let 's  all  go  together  to 
the  shallow  water  where  he  suns  himself, 
and  let 's  all  stand  close  to  each  other, 
and  then,  when  he  comes  along,  let 's  stick 
out  our  lips  at  him  !  " 

"  Both  lips  ?  "  asked  the  larvae. 

"  Well,  our  lower  lips  anyway,"  an- 
swered the  Nymph.  "  Our  upper  lips  are 
so  small  they  don't  matter." 

"  We  11  do  it,"  exclaimed  all  the  Dragon- 
Fly  children,  and  they  started  together 
to  walk  on  the  pond-bottom  to  the  shallow 
water.  They  thought  it  would  scare  the 
Snapping  Turtle  dreadfully.  They  knew 
that  whenever  they  stuck  out  their  lower 
lips  at  the  small  fishes  and  bugs,  they  swam 
away  as  fast  as  they  could.  The  Giant 


The  Dragon-Fly  Children         103 

Water-Bug  (Belostoma),  was  the  only  bug 
who  was  not  afraid  of  them  when  they 
made  faces.  Indeed,  the  lower  lip  of  a 
Dragon-Fly  child  might  well  frighten  peo- 
ple, for  it  is  fastened  on  a  long,  jointed, 
arm -like  thing,  and  has  pincers  on  it 
with  which  it  catches  and  holds  its  food. 
Most  of  the  time,  the  Dragon-Fly  child 
keeps  the  joint  bent,  and  so  holds  his  lip 
up  to  his  face  like  a  mask.  But  some- 
times he  straightens  the  joint  and  holds 
his  lip  out  before  him,  and  then  its  pincers 
catch  hold  of  things.  He  does  this  when 
he  is  hungry. 

When  they  reached  the  shallow  water, 
the  Dragon  -  Fly  children  stood  close 
together,  with  the  larvae  in  the  middle 
and  the  Nymphs  all  around  them.  The 
Snapping  Turtle  was  nowhere  to  be  seen, 
so  they  had  to  wait.  "  Are  n't  you 
scared  ?  "  whispered  one  larva  to  another. 

"  Scared?  Dah  !  Who's  afraid,"  an- 
swered he. 


104         Among  the  Pond  People 

"  Oh,  look  !  "  cried  a  Nymph.  "  There 
go  some  grown-up  Dragon-Flies  over 
our  heads.  Just  you  wait  until  I  change 
my  skin  once  more,  and  then  won't  I  have 
a  good  time  !  I  '11  dry  my  wings  and  then 
I  '11 " 

"  Sh-h  !  "  said  one  of  the  larvae.  "  Here 
comes  the  Snapping  Turtle." 

Sure  enough,  there  he  came  through 
the  shallow  water,  his  wet  back-shell  partly 
out  of  it  and  shining  in  the  sunlight.  He 
came  straight  toward  the  Dragon-Fly 
children,  and  they  were  glad  to  see  that 
he  did  not  look  hungry.  They  thought 
he  might  be  going  to  take  a  nap  after  his 
dinner.  Then  they  all  stood  even  closer 
together  and  stuck  out  their  lower  lips  at 
him.  They  thought  he  might  run  away 
when  they  did  this.  They  felt  sure  that 
he  would  at  least  be  very  badly 
frightened. 

The  Snapping  Turtle  did  not  seem  to 
see  them  at  all.  It  was  queer.  He  just 


The  Dragon-Fly  Children         105 

waddled  on  and  on,  coming  straight  to- 
ward them.  "  Ah-h-h  !  "  said  he.  "  How 
sleepy  I  do  feel  !  I  will  lie  down  in  the 
sunshine  and  rest."  He  took  a  few  more 
steps,  which  brought  his  great  body  right 
over  the  crowd  of  Dragon-Fly  children. 
"  I  think  I  will  draw  in  my  head,"  said  he 
(the  Dragon-Fly  children  looked  at  each 
other),  "  and  my  tail  (here  two  of  the 
youngest  larvae  began  to  cry)  and  lie 
down."  He  began  to  draw  in  his  legs 
very,  very  slowly,  and  just  as  his  great 
hard  lower  shell  touched  the  mud,  the  last 
larva  crawled  out  under  his  tail.  The 
Nymphs  had  already  gotten  away. 

"  Oh,"  said  the  Dragon-Fly  children  to 
each  other,  "  Was  n't  it  awful  ! " 

"  Humph,"  said  the  Snapping  Turtle, 
talking  to  himself  —  he  had  gotten  into  the 
way  of  doing  that  because  he  had  so  few 
friends —  "  How  dreadfully  they  did  scare 
me ! "  Then  he  laughed  a  grim  Snap- 
ping Turtle  laugh,  and  went  to  sleep. 


THE  SNAPPY  SNAPPING 
TURTLE 

T^HERE  was  but  one  Snapping  Turtle 
in  the  pond,  and  he  was  the  only 
person  there  who  had  ever  been  heard  to 
wish  for  another.  He  had  not  always 
lived  there,  and  could  just  remember 
leaving  his  brothers  and  sisters  when  he 
was  young.  "  I  was  carried  away  from 
my  people,"  he  said,  "  and  kept  on  land 
for  a  few  days.  Then  I  was  brought  here 
and  have  made  it  my  home  ever  since." 

One  could  tell  by  looking  at  him  that 
he  was  related  to  the  Mud  Turtles.  He 
had  upper  and  lower  shells  like  them,  and 
could  draw  in  his  head  and  legs  and  tail 
when  he  wanted  to.  His  shells  were 

gray,  quite  the  color  of  a  clay-bank,  and 
1 06 


The  Snappy  Snapping  Turtle      107 

his  head  was  larger  than  those  of  the  Mud 
Turtles.  His  tail  was  long  and  scaly  and 
pointed,  and  his  forelegs  were  large  and 
warty.  There  were  fine,  strong  webs  be- 
tween his  toes,  as  there  were  between  the 
toes  of  his  relatives,  the  Mud  Turtles. 

When  he  first  came  to  live  in  the  pond, 
people  were  sorry  for  him,  and  tried  to 
make  him  feel  at  home.  He  had  a  chance 
to  win  many  friends  and  have  all  his 
neighbors  fond  of  him,  but  he  was  too 
snappy.  When  the  water  was  just  warm 
enough,  and  his  stomach  was  full,  and  he 
had  slept  well  the  night  before,  and  every- 
thing was  exactly  as  he  wished  it  to  be,— 
ah,  then  he  was  a  very  agreeable  Turtle, 
and  was  ready  to  talk  in  the  most  gracious 
way  to  his  neighbors.  That  was  all  very 
well.  Anybody  can  be  good-natured 
when  everything  is  exactly  right  and  he 
can  have  his  own  way.  But  the  really 
delightful  people,  you  know,  are  the  ones 
who  are  pleasant  when  things  go  wrong. 


io8          Among  the  Pond  People 

It  was  a  Mud  Turtle  Father  who  first 
spoke  to  him.  "  I  hope  you  '11  like  the 
pond,"  said  he.  "  We  think  it  very  home- 
like and  comfortable." 

"  Humph  !  Shallow  little  hole  !  "  snapped 
the  one  who  had  just  come.  "  I  bump  my 
head  on  the  bottom  every  time  I  dive." 

"  That  is  too  bad,"  exclaimed  the  Mud 
Turtle  Father.  "  I  hope  you  dive  where 
there  is  a  soft  bottom." 

"  Sometimes  I  do  and  sometimes  I 
don't,"  answered  the  Snapping  Turtle.  "  I 
can't  bother  to  swim  down  slowly  and  try 
it,  and  then  go  back  to  dive.  When  I 
want  to  dive,  I  want  to  dive,  and  that's 
all  there  is  to  it." 

"Yes,"  said  the  Mud  Turtle  Father. 
"  I  know  how  it  is  when  one  has  the 
diving  feeling.  I  hope  your  head  will 
not  trouble  you  much,  and  that  you  will 
soon  be  used  to  our  waters."  He  spread 
his  toes  and  swam  strongly  away,  pushing 
against  the  water  with  his  webbed  feet. 


The  Snappy  Snapping  Turtle      109 

"  Humph  ! "  said  the  Snapping  Turtle 
to  himself.  "It  is  all  very  well  to  talk 
about  getting  used  to  these  waters,  but  I 
never  shall.  I  can  hardly  see  now  for 
the  pain  in  the  right  side  of  my  head, 
where  I  bumped  it.  Or  was  it  the  left 
side  I  hit  ?  Queer  I  can't  remember  !  " 
Then  he  swam  to  shallow  water,  and  drew 
himself  into  his  shell,  and  lay  there  and 
thought  how  badly  he  felt,  and  how  horrid 
the  pond  was,  and  what  poor  company  his 
neighbors  were,  and  what  a  disagreeable 
world  this  is  for  Snapping  Turtles. 

The  Mud  Turtle  Father  went  home 
and  told  his  wife  all  about  it.  "  What  a 
disagreeable  fellow  !  "  she  said.  "  But 
then,  he  is  a  bachelor,  and  bachelors  are 
often  queer." 

"  I  never  was,"  said  her  husband. 

"  Oh  !  "  said  she.  And,  being  a  wise 
wife,  she  did  not  say  anything  else.  She 
knew,  however,  that  Mr.  Mud  Turtle  was 
a  much  more  agreeable  fellow  since  he 


no         Among  the  Pond  People 

had  married  and  learned  to  think  more  of 
somebody  else  than  of  himself.  It  is  the 
people  who  think  too  much  of  themselves 
you  know,  who  are  most  unhappy  in  this 
world. 

The  Eels  also  tried  to  be  friendly,  and, 
when  he  dove  to  the  bottom,  called  to  him 
to  stay  and  visit  with  them.  "  You  must 
excuse  us  from  making  the  first  call,"  they 
said.  "  We  go  out  so  little  in  the  day- 
time." 

"  Humph  !  "  said  the  Snapping  Turtle. 
"  Do  you  good  to  get  away  from  home 
more.  No  wonder  your  eyes  are  weak, 
when  you  lie  around  in  the  mud  of  the 
dark  pond-bottom  all  day.  Indeed,  I  '11 
not  stay.  You  can  come  to  see  me  like 
other  people." 

Then  he  swam  away  and  told  the  Clams 
what  he  had  said,  and  he  acted  quite  proud 
of  what  was  really  dreadful  rudeness. 
"  It  '11  do  them  good  to  hear  the  truth," 
said  he.  "  I  always  speak  right  out. 


The  Snappy  Snapping  Turtle      1 1 1 

They  are  as  bad  as  the  Water-Adder. 
They  have  no  backbone." 

The  Clams  listened  politely  and  said 
nothing.  They  never  did  talk  much. 
The  Snapping  Turtle  was  mistaken 
though,  when  he  said  that  the  Eels  and 
the  Water-Adder  had  no  backbone.  They 
really  had  much  more  than  he,  but  they 
wore  theirs  inside,  while  his  was  spread 
out  in  the  shape  of  a  shell  for  everybody 
to  see. 

He  did  not  even  try  to  keep  his  temper. 
He  became  angry  one  day  because  Belos- 
toma,  the  Giant  Water-Bug,  ate  some- 
thing which  he  wanted  for  himself.  His 
eyes  glared  and  his  horny  jaws  snapped, 
and  he  waved  his  long,  pointed,  scaly 
tail  in  a  way  which  was  terrible  to  see. 
"You  are  a  good-for-nothing  bug,"  he 
said.  "  You  do  no  work,  and  you  eat 
more  than  any  other  person  of  your  size 
here.  Nobody  likes  you,  and  there  is  n't 
a  little  fish  in  the  pond  who  would  be 


1 1 2          Among  the  Pond  People 

seen  with  you  if  he  could  help  it.  They 
all  hide  if  they  see  you  coming.  I  '11  be 
heartily  glad  when  you  get  your  wings 
and  fly  away.  Don't  let  any  of  your 
friends  lay  their  eggs  in  this  pond.  I  Ve 
seen  enough  of  your  family." 

Of  course  this  made  Belostoma  feel 
very  badly.  He  was  not  a  popular  bug, 
and  it  is  possible  that  if  he  could  have 
had  his  own  way,  he  would  have  chosen 
to  be  a  Crayfish  or  a  Stickleback,  rather 
than  what  he  was.  As  for  his  not  work- 
ing —  there  was  nothing  for  him  to  do, 
so  how  could  he  work  ?  He  had  to  eat, 
or  he  would  not  grow,  and  since  the 
Snapping  Turtle  was  a  hearty  eater  him- 
self, he  should  have  had  the  sense  to 
keep  still  about  that.  Belostoma  told  the 
Mud  Turtles  what  the  Snapping  Turtle 
had  said,  and  the  Mud  Turtle  Father 
spoke  of  it  to  the  Snapping  Turtle. 

By  that  time  the  Snapping  Turtle  was 
feeling  better  natured  and  was  very  gra- 


The  Snappy  Snapping  Turtle      113 

Belostoma  should  n't  remember 
those  things,"  said  he,  moving  one  warty 
foreleg.  "  When  I  am  angry,  I  often 
say  things  that  I  do  not  mean  ;  but  then, 
I  get  right  over  it.  I  had  almost  forgot- 
ten my  little  talk  with  him.  I  don't  see 
any  reason  for  telling  him  I  am  sorry. 
He  is  very  silly  to  think  so  much  of  it." 
He  lifted  his  big  head  quite  high,  and 
acted  as  though  it  was  really  a  noble 
thing  to  be  ugly  and  then  forget  about  it. 
He  might  just  as  sensibly  ask  people  to 
admire  him  for  not  eating  when  his 
stomach  was  full,  or  for  lying  still  when 
he  was  too  tired  to  swim. 

When  the  Mud  Turtle  Mother  heard 
of  this,  she  was  quite  out  of  patience. 
"  All  he  cares  for,"  said  she,  "  is  just 
Snapping  Turtle,  Snapping  Turtle,  Snap- 
ping Turtle.  When  he  is  good-natured, 
he  thinks  everybody  else  ought  to  be ; 
and  when  he  is  bad-tempered  he  does  n't 
care  how  other  people  feel.  He  will 


1 14          Among  the  Pond  People 

never  be  any  more  agreeable  until  he 
does  something  kind  for  somebody,  and  I 
don't  see  any  chance  of  that  happening." 

There  came  a  day,  though,  when  the 
pond  people  were  glad  that  the  Snap- 
ping Turtle  lived  there.  Two  boys  were 
wading  in  the  edge  of  the  pond,  splash- 
ing the  water  and  scaring  all  the  people 
who  were  near  them.  The  Sticklebacks 
turned  pale  all  over,  as  they  do  when 
they  are  badly  frightened.  The  Yellow 
Brown  Frog  was  so  scared  that  he  emptied 
out  the  water  he  had  saved  for  wetting 
his  skin  in  dry  weather.  He  had  a  great 
pocket  in  his  body  filled  with  water,  for 
if  his  skin  should  get  dry  he  could  n't 
breathe  through  it,  and  unless  he  carried 
water  with  him  he  could  not  stay  ashore 
at  all. 

The  boys  had  even  turned  the  Mud 
Turtle  Father  onto  his  back  in  the  sun- 
shine, where  he  lay,  waving  his  feet  in 
the  air,  but  not  strong  enough  to  get 


The  Snappy  Snapping  Turtle     115 

right  side  up  again.  The  Snapping 
Turtle  was  taking  a  nap  in  deep  water, 
when  the  frightened  fishes  came  swim- 
ming toward  him  as  fast  as  their  tails 
would  take  them.  "  What  is  the  matter  ?  " 
said  he. 

"  Boys  ! "  cried  they.  "  Boys  ! "  The 
dreadful,  splashing,  Turtle-turning  kind." 

"  Humph!"  said  the  Snapping  Turtle. 
"  I  '11  have  to  see  about  that.  How  many 
are  there  ?  " 

"  Two  !  "  cried  the  Sticklebacks  and 
Minnows  together. 

"  And  there  is  only  one  of  me,"  said 
the  Snapping  Turtle  to  himself.  "  I 
must  have  somebody  to  help  me.  Oh, 
Belostoma,"  he  cried,  as  the  Giant  Water- 
Bug  swam  past.  "  Help  me  drive  those 
boys  away." 

"  With  pleasure,"  said  Belostoma,  who 
liked  nothing  better  than  this  kind  of 
work.  Off  they  started  for  the  place 
where  the  boys  were  wading.  The  Snap- 


u6         Among  the  Pond  People 

ping  Turtle  took  long,  strong  strokes 
with  his  webbed  feet,  and  Belostoma 
could  not  keep  up  with  him.  The  Snap- 
ping Turtle  saw  this.  "  Jump  onto  my 
back,"  cried  he.  "  You  are  a  light  fellow. 
Hang  tight." 

Belostoma  jumped  onto  the  Snapping 
Turtle's  clay-colored  shell,  and  when  he 
found  himself  slipping  off  the  back  end  of 
it,  he  stuck  his  claws  into  the  Snapping 
Turtle's  tail  and  held  on  in  that  way.  He 
knew  that  he  was  not  easily  hurt,  even  if 
he  did  make  a  fuss  when  he  bumped  his 
head.  As  soon  as  they  got  near  the  boys, 
the  Snapping  Turtle  spoke  over  his  back- 
shell  to  Belostoma.  "  Slide  off  now,  "  said 
he,  "  and  drive  away  the  smaller  boy. 
Don't  stop  to  talk  with  these  Blood- 
suckers." 

So  Belostoma  slid  off  and  swam  toward 
the  smaller  boy,  and  he  ran  out  his  stout 
little  sucking  tube  and  stung  him  on  the 
leg.  Just  then  the  Snapping  Turtle 


THERE  WAS  A  GREAT  SPLASHING  AND  DASHING.  Pa*e  117 


The  Snappy  Snapping  Turtle      117 

brought  his  horny  jaws  together  on  one  of 
the  larger  boy's  feet.  There  was  a  great 
splashing  and  dashing  as  the  boys  ran  to 
the  shore,  and  three  Bloodsuckers,  who 
had  fastened  themselves  to  the  boy's  legs, 
did  not  have  time  to  drop  off,  and  were 
carried  ashore  and  never  seen  again. 

"  There ! "  said  the  Snapping  Turtle. 
"  That 's  done.  I  don't  know  what  the 
pond  people  would  do,  if  you  and  I  were 
not  here  to  look  after  them,  Belostoma." 

"  I  'm  glad  I  happened  along,"  said  the 
Giant  Water-Bug  quietly,  "  but  you  will 
have  to  do  it  all  after  this.  I  'm  about 
ready  to  leave  the  pond.  I  think  I  '11  go 
to-morrow." 

"  Going  to-morrow  !  "  exclaimed  the 
Snapping  Turtle.  "  I  'm  sorry.  Of 
course  I  know  you  can  never  come  back, 
but  send  your  friends  here  to  lay  their 
eggs.  We  must  n't  be  left  without  some 
of  your  family." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Belostoma,  and  he 


1 1 8          Among  the  Pond  People 

did  not  show  that  he  remembered  some 
quite  different  things  which  the  Snapping 
Turtle  had  said  before,  about  his  leaving 
the  pond.  And  that  showed  that  he  was 
a  very  wise  bug  as  well  as  a  brave  one. 

"  Humph  !"  said  the  Snapping  Turtle. 
"There  is  the  Mud  Turtle  Father  on  his 
back."  And  he  ran  to  him  and  pushed 
him  over  onto  his  feet.  "  Oh,  thank 
you,"  cried  the  Mud  Turtle  Mother.  "  I 
was  not  strong  enough  to  do  that." 

"  Always  glad  to  help  my  neighbors," 
said  the  Snapping  Turtle.  "  Pleasant 
day,  is  n't  it  ?  I  must  tell  the  fishes  that 
the  boys  are  gone.  The  poor  little  fellows 
were  almost  too  scared  to  swim."  And 
he  went  away  with  a  really  happy  look  on 
his  face. 

"  There  !  "  said  the  Mud  Turtle  Mother 
to  her  husband.  "  He  has  begun  to  help 
people,  and  now  he  likes  them,  and  is 
contented.  I  always  told  you  so  ! " 


THE    CLEVER   WATER-ADDER 

NT  ONE  of  the  pond  people  were  alone 
*  ^  more  than  the  Water-Adders.  The 
Snapping  Turtle  was  left  to  himself  a 
great  deal  until  the  day  when  he  and  Bel- 
ostoma  drove  away  the  boys.  After  that 
his  neighbors  began  to  understand  him 
better  and  he  was  less  grumpy,  so  that 
those  who  wore  shells  were  soon  quite 
fond  of  him. 

Belostoma  did  not  have  many  friends 
among  the  smaller  people,  and  only  a  few 
among  the  larger  ones.  They  said  that 
he  was  cruel,  and  that  he  had  a  bad  habit 
of  using  his  stout  sucking  tube  to  sting 
with.  Still,  Belostoma  did  not  care  ;  he 
said,  "  A  Giant  Water-Bug  does  not  al- 
ways live  in  the  water.  I  shall  have  my 
119 


1 20          Among  the  Pond  People 

wings  soon,  and  leave  the  water  and 
marry.  After  that,  I  shall  fly  away  on 
my  wedding  trip.  Mrs.  Belostoma  may 
go  with  me,  if  she  feels  like  doing  so  after 
laying  her  eggs  here.  I  shall  go  anyway. 
And  I  shall  flutter  and  sprawl  around  the 
light,  and  sting  people  who  bother  me, 
and  have  a  happy  time."  That  was  Bel- 
ostoma's  way.  He  would  sting  people 
who  bothered  him,  but  then  he  always 
said  that  they  need  not  have  bothered 
him.  And  perhaps  that  was  so. 

With  the  Water-Adders  it  was  differ- 
ent. They  were  good-natured  enough, 
yet  the  Mud  Turtles  and  Snapping  Turtle 
were  the  only  ones  who  ever  called  upon 
them  and  found  them  at  home.  The 
small  people  without  shells  were  afraid  of 
them,  and  the  Clams  and  Pond  Snails 
never  called  upon  any  one.  The  Min- 
nows said  they  could  not  bear  the  looks 
of  the  Adders — they  had  such  ugly  mouths 
and  such  quick  motions.  The  larger 


The  Clever  Water- Adder         121 

fishes  kept  away  on  account  of  their  chil- 
dren, who  were  small  and  tender. 

One  might  think  that  the  Sand-Hill 
Cranes,  the  Fish  Hawks,  and  the  other 
shore  families  would  have  been  good 
friends  for  them,  but  when  they  called, 
the  Adders  were  always  away.  People 
said  that  the  Adders  were  afraid  of  them. 

The  Yellow  Brown  Frog  wished  that  the 
Adders  could  be  scared,  badly  scared,  some 
time  :  so  scared  that  a  chilly  feeling  would 
run  down  their  backs  from  their  heads 
clear  to  the  tips  of  their  tails.  "  I  wish," 
said  he,  "  that  the  chilly  feeling  would  be 
big  enough  to  go  way  through  to  their 
bellies.  Their  bellies  are  only  the  front 
side  of  their  backs,  anyway,"  he  added, 
"  because  they  are  so  thin."  Of  course 
this  was  a  dreadful  wish  to  make,  but 
people  said  that  one  of  the  Adders  had 
frightened  the  Yellow  Brown  Frog  so 
that  he  never  got  over  it,  and  this  was 
the  reason  he  felt  so. 


122          Among  the  Pond  People 

The  Water-Adders  were  certainly  the 
cleverest  people  in  the  pond,  and  there 
was  one  Mother  Adder  who  was  so  very 
bright  that  they  called  her  "  the  Clever 
Water- Adder."  She  could  do  almost 
anything,  and  she  knew  it.  She  talked 
about  it,  too,  and  that  showed  bad  taste, 
and  was  one  reason  why  she  was  not  liked 
better.  She  could  swim  very  fast,  could 
creep,  glide,  catch  hold  of  things  with  her 
tail,  hang  herself  from  the  branch  of  a 
tree,  lift  her  head  far  into  the  air,  leap, 
dart,  bound,  and  dive.  All  her  family 
could  do  these  things,  but  she  could  do 
them  a  little  the  best. 

One  day  she  was  hanging  over  the  pond 
in  a  very  graceful  position,  with  her  tail 
twisted  carelessly  around  a  willow  branch. 
The  Snapping  Turtle  and  a  Mud  Turtle 
Father  were  in  the  shallow  water  below 
her.  Her  slender  forked  tongue  was  dart- 
ing in  and  out  of  her  open  mouth.  She 
was  using  her  tongue  in  this  way  most  of 


The  Clever  Water-Adder         123 

the  time.  "  It  is  useful  in  feeling  of 
things,"  she  said,  "  and  then,  I  have  always 
thought  it  quite  becoming."  She  could 
see  herself  reflected  in  the  still  water  be- 
low her,  and  she  noticed  how  prettily  the 
dark  brown  of  her  back  shaded  into  the 
white  of  her  belly.  You  see  she  was  vain 
as  well  as  clever. 

The  Snapping  Turtle  felt  cross  to-day, 
and  had  come  to  see  if  a  talk  with  her 
would  not  make  him  feel  better.  The 
Mud  Turtle  was  tired  of  having  the  chil- 
dren sprawl  around  him,  and  of  Mrs.  Mud 
Turtle  telling  about  the  trouble  she  had  to 
get  the  right  kind  of  food. 

The  Clever  Water-Adder  spoke  first  of 
the  weather.  "  It  must  be  dreadfully  hot 
for  the  shore  people,"  she  said.  "Think 
of  their  having  to  wear  the  same  feathers 
all  the  year  and  fly  around  in  the  sunshine 
to  find  food  for  their  children." 

"  Ah  yesv"  said  the  Mud  Turtle.  "  How 
they  must  wish  for  shells  ! " 


124          Among  the  Pond  People 

"  Humph  ! "  said  the  Snapping  Turtle. 
"What  for?  To  fly  with?  Let  them 
come  in  swimming  with  their  children,  if 
they  are  warm  and  tired." 

The  Water-Adder  laughed  in  her  snaky 
way,  and  showed  her  sharp  teeth.  "  I 
have  heard,"  she  said,  "  that  when  the 
Wild  Ducks  bring  their  children  here  to 
swim,  they  do  not  always  take  so  many 
home  as  they  brought." 

The  Snapping  Turtle  became  very  much 
interested  in  his  warty  right  foreleg,  and 
did  not  seem  to  hear  what  she  said  The 
Mud  Turtle  smiled.  "  I  have  heard," 
she  went  on,  "  that  when  young  Ducks 
dive  head  first,  they  are  quite  sure  to 
come  up  again,  but  that  when  they  dive 
feet  first,  they  never  come  up." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  asked  the  Snap- 
ping Turtle,  and  he  was  snappy  about  it. 

"  Oh,  nothing,"  replied  the  Water-Ad- 
der, swinging  her  head  back  and  forth 
and  looking  at  the  scales  on  her  body. 


The  Clever  Water- Adder         125 

"  I  know  what  you  mean,"  said  the 
Snapping  Turtle,  "  and  you  know  what 
you  mean,  but  I  have  to  eat  something, 
and  if  I  am  swimming  under  the  water 
and  a  Duckling  paddles  along  just  above 
me  and  sticks  his  foot  into  my  mouth,  I 
am  likely  to  swallow  him  before  I  think." 

The  Water-Adder  saw  that  he  was  pro- 
voked by  what  she  had  said,  so  she  talked 
about  something  else.  "  I  think  the  Ducks 
spoil  their  children,"  said  she.  "  They 
make  such  a  fuss  over  them,  and  they  are 
not  nearly  so  bright  as  my  children.  Why, 
mine  hatch  as  soon  as  the  eggs  are  laid, 
and  go  hunting  at  once.  They  are  no 
trouble  at  all." 

"  I  never  worry  about  mine,"  said  the 
Mud  Turtle,  "  although  their  mother 
thinks  it  is  not  safe  for  them  all  to  sleep 
at  once,  as  they  do  on  a  log  in  the  sun- 
shine." 

"It  isn't,"  said  the  Adder  decidedly. 
"  I  never  close  my  eyes.  None  of  us 


126          Among  the  Pond  People 

Adders  do.  Nobody  can  ever  say  that 
we  close  our  eyes  to  danger."  They 
could  n't  shut  their  eyes  if  they  wanted 
to,  because  they  had  no  eyelids,  but  she 
did  not  speak  of  that.  "  How  stupid  peo- 
ple are,"  she  said. 

"  Most  of  them,"  remarked  the  Turtles. 

"  All  of  them,"  she  said,  "  except  us 
Adders  and  the  Turtles.  I  even  think 
that  some  of  the  Turtles  are  a  little  queer, 
don't  you  ?  " 

"  We  have  thought  so,"  said  the  Mud 
Turtle. 

"  They  certainly  are,"  agreed  the  Snap- 
ping Turtle,  who  was  beginning  to  feel 
much  better  natured. 

"  What  did  you  say  ?  "  asked  the  Ad- 
der who,  like  all  her  family,  was  a  little 
deaf. 

"  Ouch  !  "  exclaimed  the  Snapping 
Turtle.  "  Ouch  !  Ouch  !  " 

"What  is  the  matter?"  asked  the  Mud 
Turtle.  Then  he  began  to  slap  the 


The  Clever  Water-Adder         127 

water  with  his  short,  stout  tail,  and  say 
"  Ouch  !  " 

Two  naughty  young  Water-Boatmen 
had  swum  quietly  up  on  their  backs,  and 
stung  the  Turtles  on  their  tails.  Then 
they  swam,  away,  pushing  themselves 
quickly  through  the  water  with  swift 
strokes  of  their  hairy  oar-legs. 

"  Ah-h-h  !  "  exclaimed  the  Snapping 
Turtle,  and  he  backed  into  the  mud, 
knowing  that  fine,  soft  mud  is  the  best 
thing  in  the  world  for  stings. 

"  Ah-h-h  !  "  exclaimed  the  Mud  Turtle, 
"if  I  could  only  reach  my  tail  with  my 
head,  or  even  with  one  of  my  hind  feet ! " 

"  Reach  your  tail  with  your  head  ? " 
asked  the  Water-Adder  in  her  sweetest 
voice.  "  Nothing  is  easier."  And  she 
wound  herself  around  the  willow  branch 
in  another  graceful  position,  and  took 
the  tip  of  her  tail  daintily  between  her 
teeth. 

"  Humph  !  "  said  the  Snapping  Turtle, 


128          Among  the  Pond  People 

and  he  pulled  his  tail  out  of  the  mud  and 
swam  away. 

"  Ugh  ! "  said  the  Mud  Turtle,  and 
he  swam  away  with  the  Snapping  Turtle. 

"  What  a  rude  person  she  is  ! "  they 
said.  "  Always  trying  to  show  how  much 
more  clever  she  is  than  other  people.  We 
would  rather  be  stupid  and  polite." 

After  a  while  the  Snapping  Turtle  said, 
"  But  then,  you  know,  we  are  not  stupid." 

"  Of  course  not,"  replied  the  Mud  Tur- 
tle, "  not  even  queer." 


THE  GOOD  LITTLE  CRANES 
WHO  WERE  BAD 

AA7HEN  the  Sand-Hill  Cranes  were 
married,  they  began  to  work  for  a 
home  of  their  own.  To  be  sure,  they 
had  chosen  a  place  for  it  beforehand,  yet 
there  were  other  things  to  think  about, 
and  some  of  their  friends  told  them  it 
would  be  very  foolish  to  build  on  the 
ground.  "  There  are  so  many  accidents 
to  ground  nests,"  these  friends  said. 
"  There  are  Snakes,  you  know,  and  Rats, 
and  a  great  many  other  people  whom  you 
would  not  want  to  have  look  in  on  your 
children.  Besides,  something  might  fall 
on  it." 

The  young  couple  talked  this  all  over 
and  decided  to  build  in  a  tree.     "  We  are 

129 


130          Among  the  Pond  People 

not  afraid  of  Snakes  and  Rats,"  they  said, 
"  but  we  would  fear  something  falling  on 
the  nest."  They  were  talking  to  quite  an 
old  Crane  when  they  said  this. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  build  in  a  tree  ?  "  said 
he.  "  My  dear  young  friends,  don't  do 
that.  Just  think,  a  high  wind  might  blow 
the  nest  down  and  spoil  everything.  Do 
whatever  you  wish,  but  don't  build  in  a 
tree."  Then  he  flew  away. 

"  Dear  me  !  "  exclaimed  young  Mrs. 
Crane,  "  one  tells  me  to  do  this  and  never 
to  do  that.  Another  tells  me  to  do  that 
and  never  to  do  this.  I  shall  just  please 
myself  since  I  cannot  please  my  friends." 

"  And  which  place  do  you  choose  ? " 
asked  her  husband,  who  always  liked 
whatever  she  did. 

"  I  shall  build  on  the  ground,"  she  said 
decidedly.  "If  the  tree  falls,  it  may  hit 
the  nest  and  it  may  not,  but  if  we  build 
in  the  tree  and  it  falls,  we  are  sure  to  hit 
the  ground." 


The  Good  Little  Cranes          131 

"  How  wise  you  are  ! "  exclaimed  her 
husband.  "  I  believe  people  get  in  a  way 
of  building  just  so,  and  come  to  think 
that  no  other  way  can  be  right."  Which 
shows  that  Mr.  Sand- Hill  Crane  was  also 
wise. 

Both  worked  on  the  nest,  bringing 
roots  and  dried  grasses  with  which  to 
build  it  up.  Sometimes  they  went  to 
dance  with  their  friends,  and  when  they 
did  they  bowed  most  of  the  time  to  each 
other.  They  did  not  really  care  very 
much  about  going,  because  they  were  so 
interested  in  the  nest.  This  they  had  to 
build  quite  high  from  the  ground,  on  ac- 
count of  their  long  legs.  "  If  I  were  a 
Duck,"  said  Mrs.  Sand-Hill  Crane,  "it 
would  do  very  well  for  me  to  sit  on  the 
nest,  but  with  my  legs  ?  Never  !  I 
would  as  soon  sit  on  two  bare  branches 
as  to  have  them  doubled  under  me."  So 
she  tried  the  nest  until  it  was  just  as  high 
as  her  legs  were  long. 


132          Among  the  Pond  People 

When  it  was  high  enough,  she  laid  in  it 
two  gray  eggs  with  brown  spots.  After 
that  she  did  no  more  dancing,  but  stood 
with  a  leg  on  either  side  of  the  nest,  and 
her  soft  body  just  over  the  eggs  to  keep 
them  warm.  It  was  very  tiresome  work, 
and  sometimes  Mr.  Crane  covered  the 
eggs  while  she  went  fishing.  The  Cranes 
are  always  very  kind  to  their  wives. 

This,  you  know,  was  the  first  time  that 
either  had  had  a  nest,  and  it  was  all  new 
and  wonderful  to  them.  They  thought 
that  there  never  had  been  such  a  beauti- 
ful home.  They  often  stood  on  the 
ground  beside  it,  and  poked  it  this  way 
and  that  with  their  bills,  and  said  to  each 
other,  "  Just  look  at  this  fine  root  that  I 
wove  in,"  or,  "  Have  you  noticed  how 
well  that  tuft  of  dried  grass  looks  where  I 
put  it  ? "  As  it  came  near  the  time  for 
their  eggs  to  hatch,  they  could  hardly 
bear  to  be  away  long  enough  to  find 
food. 


The  Good  Little  Cranes          133 

One  day  young  Mr.  Sand- Hill  Crane 
came  home  much  excited.  "  Our  neigh- 
bors, the  Cranes  who  live  across  the 
pond,"  said  he,  "  had  two  children  hatched 
this  morning." 

"  Oh,  how  glad  I  am  !  "  cried  his  wife. 
"  How  glad  I  am  !  Those  eggs  were  laid 
just  before  ours,  which  must  hatch  very 
soon  now." 

"  That  is  what  I  thought,"  said  he.  "  I 
feel  so  sorry  for  them,  though,  for  I  saw 
their  children,  and  they  are  dreadfully 
homely, — not  at  all  like  their  parents,  who 
are  quite  good-looking." 

"  I  must  see  them  myself,"  said  his 
wife,  "  and  if  you  will  cover  the  eggs 
while  I  go  for  food,  I  will  just  peep  in  on 
them.  I  will  hurry  back."  She  flew 
steadily  across  the  pond,  which  was  not 
very  wide,  and  asked  to  see  the  babies. 
She  had  never  seen  any  Crane  children, 
you  know,  since  she  herself  was  little. 
She  thought  them  very  ugly  to  look  at, 


134          Among  the  Pond  People 

and  wondered  how  their  mother  could 
seem  bright  and  cheerful  with  two  such 
disappointing  children.  She  said  all  the 
polite  things  that  she  honestly  could,  then 
got  something  to  eat,  and  flew  home. 
"  They  are  very,  very  homely,"  she  said 
to  her  husband,  "  and  I  think  it  queer. 
All  their  older  children  are  good-looking." 

She  had  hardly  said  this  when  she 
heard  a  faint  tapping  sound  in  the  nest. 
She  looked,  and  there  was  the  tip  of  a 
tiny  beak  showing  through  the  shell  of 
one  egg.  She  stood  on  one  side  of  the 
nest,  watching,  and  her  husband  stood  on 
the  other  while  their  oldest  child  slowly 
made  his  way  out.  They  dared  not  help 
for  fear  of  hurting  him,  and  besides,  all 
the  other  Cranes  had  told  them  that  they 
must  not. 

"  Oh,  look  !  "  cried  the  young  mother. 
"  What  a  dear  little  bill!" 

"  Ah  !  "  said  the  young  father.  "  Did 
you  ever  see  such  a  neck?" 


The  Good  Little  Cranes          135 

"  Look  at  those  legs,"  cried  she.  "  What 
a  beautiful  child  he  is  !  " 

"  He  looks  just  like  you,"  said  the 
father,  "and  I  am  glad  of  it." 

"  Ah,  no,"  said  she.  "  He  is  exactly 
like  you."  And  she  began  to  clear  away 
the  broken  egg-shell. 

Soon  the  other  Crane  baby  poked  her 
bill  out,  and  again  the  young  parents 
stood  around  and  admired  their  child. 
They  could  not  decide  which  was  the 
handsomer,  but  they  were  sure  that  both 
were  remarkable  babies.  They  felt  more 
sorry  than  ever  for  their  neighbors  across 
the  pond,  who  had  such  homely  children. 
They  took  turns  in  covering  their  own 
damp  little  Cranes,  and  were  very,  very 
happy. 

Before  this,  it  had  been  easy  to  get 
what  food  they  wanted,  for  there  had 
been  two  to  work  for  two.  Now  there 
were  two  to  work  for  four,  and  that  made 
it  much  harder.  There  was  no  time  for 


136          Among  the  Pond  People 

dancing,  and  both  father  and  mother 
worked  steadily,  yet  they  were  happier 
than  ever,  and  neither  would  have  gone 
back  to  the  careless  old  days  for  all  the 
food  in  the  pond  or  all  the  dances  on  the 
beach. 

The  little  Cranes  grew  finely.  They 
changed  their  down  for  pin-feathers,  and 
then  these  grew  into  fine  brownish  gray 
feathers,  like  those  which  their  parents 
wore.  They  were  good  children,  too, 
and  very  well  brought  up.  They  ate 
whatever  food  was  given  to  them,  and 
never  found  fault  with  it.  When  they 
left  the  nest  for  the  first  time,  they  flut- 
tered and  tumbled  and  had  trouble  in 
learning  to  walk.  A  Mud  Turtle  Father 
who  was  near,  told  them  that  this  was 
because  their  legs  were  too  long  and 
too  few. 

"  Well,"  said  the  brother,  as  he  picked 
himself  up  and  tried  to  stand  on  one  leg 
while  he  drew  the  other  foot  out  of  the 


The  Good  Little  Cranes          137 

tangled  grass,  "  they  may  be  too  long, 
but  I  'm  sure  there  are  enough  of  them. 
When  I  'm  thinking  about  one,  I  never 
can  tell  what  the  other  will  do." 

Still,  it  was  not  long  before  they  could 
walk  and  wade  and  even  fly.  Then  they 
met  the  other  pond  people,  and  learned 
to  tell  a  Stickleback  from  a  Minnow. 
They  did  not  have  many  playmates.  The 
saucy  little  Kingfishers  sat  on  branches 
over  their  heads,  the  Wild  Ducks  waddled 
or  swam  under  their  very  bills,  the  Fish 
Hawks  floated  in  air  above  them,  and  the 
Gulls  screamed  hoarsely  to  them  as  they 
circled  over  the  pond,  yet  none  of  them 
were  long-legged  and  stately.  The  things 
that  the  other  birds  enjoyed  most,  they 
could  not  do,  and  sometimes  they  did  not 
like  it  very  well.  One  night  they  were 
talking  about  the  Gulls,  when  they  should 
have  been  asleep,  and  their  father  told 
them  to  tuck  their  heads  right  under  their 
wings  and  not  let  him  hear  another  word 


138          Among  the  Pond  People 

from  them.  They  did  tuck  their  heads 
under  their  wings,  but  they  peeped  out 
between  the  feathers,  and  when  they  were 
sure  their  father  and  mother  were  asleep, 
they  walked  softly  away  and  planned  to 
do  something  naughty. 

"  I  'm  tired  of  being  good,"  said  the 
brother.  "  The  Gulls  never  are  good. 
They  scream,  and  snatch,  and  contradict, 
and  have  lots  of  fun.  Let 's  be  bad  just 
for  fun." 

"All  right,"  said  his  sister.  "What 
shall  we  do?" 

"  That 's  the  trouble,"  said  he.  "  I 
can't  think  of  anything  naughty  that  I 
really  care  for." 

Each  stood  on  one  leg  and  thought  for 
a  while.  "  We  might  run  away,"  said  she. 

"  Where  would  we  go  ?  "  asked  he. 

"  We  might  go  to  the  meadow,"  said  she. 
So  they  started  off  in  the  moonlight  and 
went  to  the  meadow,  but  all  the  people 
there  were  asleep,  except  the  Tree  Frog, 


The  Good  Little  Cranes          139 

and  he  scrambled  out  of  the  way  as  soon 
as  he  saw  them  coming,  because  he 
thought  they  might  want  a  late  supper. 

"  This  is  n't  any  fun  !  "  said  the  brother. 
"  Let 's  go  to  the  forest." 

They  went  to  the  forest,  and  saw  the 
Bats  flitting  in  and  out  among  the  trees, 
and  the  Bats  flew  close  to  the  Cranes  and 
scared  them.  The  Great  Horned  Owl 
stood  on  a  branch  near  them,  and  stared 
at  them  with  his  big  round  eyes,  and  said, 
"Who?  Who?  Waugh-ho-oo ! "  Then 
the  brother  and  sister  stood  closer  to- 
gether and  answered,  "  If  you  please,  sir, 
we  are  the  Crane  children." 

But  the  Great  Horned  Owl  kept  on 
staring  at  them  and  saying  "  Who  ?  Who  ? 
Waugh-ho-oo  ! "  until  they  were  sure  he 
was  deaf,  and  answered  louder  and  louder 
still. 

The  Screech  Owls  came  also,  and 
looked  at  them,  and  bent  their  bodies 
over  as  if  they  were  laughing,  and  nodded 


140          Among  the  Pond  People 

their  heads,  and  shook  themselves.  Then 
the  Crane  children  were  sure  that  they 
were  being  made  fun  of,  so  they  stalked 
away  very  stiffly,  and  when  they  were  out 
of  sight  of  the  Owls,  they  flew  over  to- 
ward the  farmhouse.  They  were  not 
having  any  fun  at  all  yet,  and  they  meant 
to  keep  on  trying,  for  what  was  the  good 
of  being  naughty  if  they  did  n't  ? 

They  passed  Horses  and  Cows  asleep 
in  the  fields,  and  saw  the  Brown  Hog 
lying  in  the  pen  with  a  great  many  little 
Brown  Pigs  and  one  White  Pig  sleeping 
beside  her.  Nobody  was  awake  except 
Collie,  the  Shepherd  Dog,  who  was  sitting 
in  the  farmyard  with  his  nose  in  the  air, 
barking  at  the  moon. 

"  Go  away  !  "  he  said  to  the  Crane  chil- 
dren, who  were  walking  around  the  yard. 
"  Go  away  !  I  must  bark  at  the  moon, 
and  I  don't  want  anybody  around."  They 
did  not  start  quite  soon  enough  to  please 
him,  so  he  dashed  at  them,  and  ran  around 


The  Good  Little  Cranes          141 

them  and  barked  at  them,  instead  of  at 
the  moon,  until  they  were  glad  enough  to 
fly  straight  home  to  the  place  where  their 
father  and  mother  were  sleeping  with 
their  heads  under  their  wings. 

"  Are  you  going  to  tell  them  ?  "  asked 
the  brother. 

"  I  don't  know,"  answered  the  sister. 
When  morning  came,  they  looked  tired, 
and  their  father  and  mother  seemed  so 
worried  about  them  that  they  told  the 
whole  story. 

"  We  did  n't  care  so  very  much  about 
what  we  did,"  they  said,  ubut  we  thought 
it  would  be  fun  to  be  naughty." 

The  father  and  mother  looked  at  each 
other  in  a  very  knowing  way.  "  A  great 
many  people  think  that,"  said  the  mother 
gently.  "  They  are  mistaken  after  all.  It 
is  really  more  fun  to  be  good." 

"Well,  I  wish  the  Gulls  wouldn't 
scream,  'Goody-goody'  at  us,"  said  the 
brother. 


142          Among  the  Pond  People 

"  What  difference  does  that  make  ? " 
asked  his  father.  "  Why  should  a  Crane 
care  what  a  Gull  says  ?  " 

"  Why,  I — I  don't  know,"  stammered 
the  brother.  "  I  guess  it  does  n't  make 
any  difference  after  all." 

The  next  day  when  the  Crane  children 
were  standing  in  the  edge  of  the  pond,  a 
pair  of  young  Gulls  flew  down  near  them 
and  screamed  out,  "  Goody-goody  !  " 

Then  the  Crane  brother  and  sister 
lifted  their  heads  and  necks  and  opened 
their  long  bills,  and  trumpeted  back, 
"  Baddy-baddy  !  " 

"  There  ! "  they  said  to  each  other. 
"  Now  we  are  even." 


THE  OLDEST  DRAGON-FLY 
NYMPH 


the  Oldest  Dragon  -  Fly 
Nymph  felt  that  the  wings  un- 
der her  skin  were  large  enough,  she  said 
good-bye  to  her  water  friends,  and  crawled 
slowly  up  the  stem  of  a  tall  cat-tail.  All 
the  other  Dragon-Fly  Nymphs  crowded 
around  her  and  wished  that  their  wings 
were  more  nearly  ready,  and  the  larvae 
talked  about  the  time  when  they  should 
become  Nymphs.  The  Oldest  Nymph, 
the  one  who  was  going  away,  told  them 
that  if  they  would  be  good  little  lar- 
vae, and  eat  a  great  deal  of  plain  food 
and  take  care  not  to  break  any  of  their 
legs,  or  to  hurt  either  of  their  short,  stiff 
little  feelers,  they  would  some  day  be  fine 
143 


144          Among  the  Pond  People 

great  Nymphs  like  her.  Then  she  crawled 
slowly  up  the  cat-tail  stem,  and  when  she 
drew  the  tenth  and  last  joint  of  her  body 
out  of  the  water,  her  friends  turned  to 
each  other  and  said,  "  She  is  really  gone." 
They  felt  so  badly  about  it  that  they  had 
to  eat  something  at  once  to  keep  from 
crying. 

The  Oldest  Nymph  now  stopped  breath- 
ing water  and  began  to  breathe  air.  She 
waited  to  look  at  the  pond  before  she 
went  any  farther.  She  had  never  seen  it 
from  above,  and  it  looked  very  queer  to 
her.  It  was  beautiful  and  shining,  and, 
because  the  sky  above  it  was  cloudless,  the 
water  was  a  most  wonderful  blue.  There 
was  no  wind  stirring,  so  there  were  no  tiny 
waves  to  sparkle  and  send  dancing  bits 
of  light  here  and  there.  It  was  one  of 
the  very  hot  and  still  summer  days,  which 
Dragon-Flies  like  best. 

A  sad  look  came  into  the  Nymph's 
great  eyes  as  she  stood  there.  "  The 


The  Oldest  Dragon-Fly  Nymph   145 

pond  is  beautiful,"  she  said  ;  "  but  when 
one  looks  at  it  from  above,  it  does  not 
seem  at  all  homelike."  She  shook  her 
three-cornered  head  sadly,  and  rubbed 
her  eyes  with  her  forelegs.  She  thought 
she  should  miss  the  happy  times  in  the 
mud  with  the  other  children. 

A  Virgin  Dragon-Fly  lighted  on  the 
cat-tail  next  to  hers.  She  knew  it  was  a 
Virgin  Dragon-Fly  because  he  had  black 
wings  folded  over  his  back,  and  there 
were  shimmering  green  and  blue  lights 
all  over  his  body  and  wings.  He  was 
very  slender  and  smaller  than  she.  "  Good 
morning,"  said  he.  "  Are  you  just 
up?" 

"  Yes,"  said  she,  looking  bashfully 
down  at  her  forefeet.  She  did  not  know 
how  to  behave  in  the  air,  it  was  so  dif- 
ferent from  the  water. 

"  Could  n't  have  a  finer  day,"  said  he. 
"  Very  glad  you  've  come.  Excuse  me. 
There  is  a  friend  to  whom  I  must  speak." 


146          Among  the  Pond  People 

Then  he  flew  away  with  another  Virgin 
Dragon-Fly. 

"  Hurry  up  and  get  your  skin  changed," 
said  a  voice  above  her,  and  there  was  a 
fine  great  fellow  floating  in  the  air  over 
her  head.  "  I  '11  tell  you  a  secret  when 
you  do." 

Dragon-Flies  care  a  great  deal  for  se- 
crets, so  she  quickly  hooked  her  twelve 
sharp  claws  into  the  cat-tail  stem,  and  un- 
fastened her  old  skin  down  the  back,  and 
wriggled  and  twisted  and  pulled  until  she 
had  all  her  six  legs  and  the  upper  part  of 
her  body  out.  This  made  her  very  tired 
and  she  had  to  rest  for  a  while.  The  old 
skin  would  only  open  down  for  a  little 
way  by  her  shoulders,  and  it  was  hard  to 
get  out  through  such  a  small  place.  Next 
she  folded  her  legs  close  to  her  body,  and 
bent  over  backward,  and  swayed  this  way 
and  that,  until  she  had  drawn  her  long, 
slender  body  from  its  outgrown  covering. 

She  crawled  away  from  the  empty  skin 


SHE  SWAYED  THIS  WAY  AND  THAT. 


Page  146 


The  Oldest  Dragon-Fly  Nymph   147 

and  looked  it  over.  It  kept  the  shape  of 
her  body,  but  she  was  surprised  to  find 
how  fast  she  was  growing  slender.  Even 
then,  and  she  had  been  out  only  a  short 
time,  she  was  much  longer  and  thinner 
than  she  had  been,  and  her  old  skin  looked 
much  too  short  for  her.  "  How  styles  do 
change,"  she  said.  "•  I  remember  how 
proud  I  was  of  that  skin  when  I  first  got 
it,  and  now  I  would  n't  be  seen  in  it." 

Her  beautiful  gauzy  wings  with  their 
dark  veinings,  were  drying  and  growing 
in  the  sunshine.  She  was  weak  now,  and 
had  them  folded  over  her  back  like  those 
of  the  Virgin  Dragon-Fly,  but,  as  soon  as 
she  felt  rested  and  strong,  she  meant  to 
spread  them  out  flat. 

The  fine  Big  Dragon-Fly  lighted  beside 
her.  "  How  are  your  wings?"  said  he. 

"  Almost  dry,"  she  answered  joyfully, 
and  she  quivered  them  a  little  to  show 
him  how  handsome  they  were. 

"Well,"   said   he.     "I'll    tell   you  the 


148          Among  the  Pond  People 

secret  now,  and  of  course  you  will  never 
speak  of  it.  I  saw  you  talking  with  a 
Virgin  Dragon-Fly.  He  may  be  all  right, 
but  he  is  n't  really  in  our  set,  you  know, 
and  you  'd  better  not  have  anything  to  do 
with  him." 

"  Thank  you,"  she  said.  "I  won't." 
She  thought  it  very  kind  in  him  to  tell  her. 

He  soon  flew  away,  and,  as  she  took 
her  first  flight  into  the  air,  a  second  Big 
Dragon-Fly  overtook  her.  "  I  '11  tell  you 
a  secret,"  said  he,  "  if  you  will  never  tell." 

"  I  won't,"  said  she. 

"  I  saw  you  talking  to  a  Virgin  Dragon- 
Fly  a  while  ago.  You  may  have  noticed 
that  he  folded  his  wings  over  his  back. 
The  Big  Dragon-Flies  never  do  this,  and 
you  must  never  be  seen  with  yours  so." 

"Thank  you,"  she  said.  "I  won't. 
But  when  they  were  drying  I  had  to  hold 
them  in  that  way." 

"Of  course,"  said  he.  "We  all  do 
things  then  that  we  would  n't  afterward." 


The  Oldest  Dragon-Fly  Nymph   149 

Before  long  she  began  egg-laying,  fly- 
ing low  enough  to  touch  her  body  to  the 
water  now  and  then  and  drop  a  single  egg. 
This  egg  always  sank  at  once  to  the 
bottom,  and  she  took  no  more  care  of  it. 

A  third  Big  Dragon-Fly  came  up  to 
her.  "  I  want  to  tell  you  something,"  he 
said.  "  Put  your  head  close  to  mine." 

She  put  her  head  close  to  his,  and  he 
whispered,  "  I  saw  you  flying  with  my 
cousin  a  few  minutes  ago.  I  dislike  to 
say  it,  but  he  is  not  a  good  friend  for  you. 
Whatever  you  do,  don't  go  with  him 
again.  Go  with  me." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  she,  yet  she  began 
to  wonder  what  was  the  matter.  She  saw 
that  just  as  soon  as  she  visited  with  any- 
body, somebody  else  told  her  that  she 
must  not  do  so  again.  Down  in  the  pond 
they  had  all  been  friends.  She  wondered 
if  it  could  not  be  so  in  the  air.  She 
rubbed  her  head  with  her  right  foreleg, 
and  frowned  as  much  as  she  could.  You 


150          Among  the  Pond  People 

know  she  could  n't  frown  very  much,  be- 
cause her  eyes  were  so  large  and  close 
together  that  there  was  only  a  small 
frowning-place  left. 

She  turned  her  head  to  see  if  any  one 
else  was  coming  to  tell  her  a  secret.  Her 
neck  was  very,  very  slender  and  did  not 
show  much,  because  the  back  side  of  her 
head  was  hollow  and  fitted  over  her 
shoulders.  No  other  Dragon -Fly  was 
near.  Instead,  she  saw  a  Swallow  swoop- 
ing down  on  her.  She  sprang  lightly  into 
the  air  and  the  Swallow  chased  her.  When 
he  had  his  beak  open  to  catch  her  as  he 
flew,  she  would  go  backward  or  sidewise 
without  turning  around.  This  happened 
many  times,  and  it  was  well  for  her  that 
it  was  so,  for  the  Swallow  was  very  hun- 
gry, and  if  he  had  caught  her  —  well,  she 
certainly  would  never  have  told  any  of 
the  secrets  she  knew. 

The  Swallow  quite  lost  his  patience  and 
flew  away  grumbling.  "  I  won't  waste 


The  Oldest  Dragon-Fly  Nymph   151 

any  more  time,"  he  said,  "  on  trying  to 
catch  somebody  who  can  fly  backward 
without  turning  around.  Ridiculous  way 
to  fly  !  " 

The  Dragon-Fly  thought  it  an  exceed- 
ingly good  way,  however,  and  was  even 
more  proud  of  her  wings  than  she  had 
been.  "  Legs  are  all  very  well,"  she  said 
to  herself,  "  as  far  as  they  go,  and  one's 
feet  would  be  of  very  little  use  without 
them  ;  but  I  like  wings  better.  Now  that 
I  think  of  it,"  she  added,  "  I  have  n't 
walked  a  step  since  I  began  to  fly.  I  un- 
derstand better  the  old  saying,  '  Make 
your  wings  save  your  legs.'  They  cer- 
tainly are  very  good  things  to  stand  on 
when  one  does  n't  care  to  fly." 

Night  came,  and  she  was  glad  to  sleep 
on  the  under  side  of  a  broad  leaf  of  pick- 
erel-weed. She  awakened  feeling  stupid 
and  lazy.  She  could  not  think  what  was 
the  matter,  until  she  heard  her  friends 
talking  about  the  weather.  Then  she 


152          Among  the  Pond  People 

knew  that  Dragon-Flies  are  certain  to 
feel  so  on  dark  and  wet  days.  "  I  don't 
see  what  difference  that  should  make," 
she  said.  "  I  'm  not  afraid  of  rain.  I  Ve 
always  been  careless  about  getting  my 
feet  wet  and  it  never  hurt  me  any." 

"  Ugh  ! "  said  one  of  her  friends. 
"You  Ve  never  been  wet  in  spots,  or  hit 
on  one  wing  by  a  great  rain-drop  that  has 
fallen  clear  down  from  a  cloud.  I  had  a 
rain-drop  hit  my  second  right  knee  once, 
and  it  has  hurt  me  ever  since.  I  have 
only  five  good  knees  left,  and  I  have  to 
be  very  careful  about  lighting  on  slippery 
leaves." 

It  was  very  dull.  Nobody  seemed  to 
care  about  anybody  or  anything.  The 
fine  Big  Dragon-Flies,  who  had  been  so 
polite  to  her  the  day  before,  hardly  said 
"Good  morning"  to  her  now.  When 
she  asked  them  questions,  they  would  say 
nothing  but  "  Yes  "  or  "  No  "  or  "  I  don't 
know,"  and  one  of  them  yawned  in  her 


The  Oldest  Dragon-Fly  Nymph   153 

face.  "  Oh  dear  !  "  she  said.  "  How  I 
wish  myself  back  in  the  pond  where  the 
rain  could  n't  wet  me.  I  'd  like  to  see  my 
old  friends  and  some  of  the  dear  little 
larvae.  I  wish  more  of  the  Nymphs  would 
come  up." 

She  looked  all  around  for  them,  and  as 
she  did  so  she  saw  the  shining  back-shell 
of  the  Snapping  Turtle,  showing  above 
the  shallow  water.  "  I  believe  I  '11  call 
on  him,"  she  said.  "He  may  tell  me 
something  about  my  old  friends,  and  any- 
way it  will  cheer  me  up."  She  lighted 
very  carefully  on  the  middle  of  his  back- 
shell  and  found  it  very  comfortable. 
"  Good  morning,"  said  she.  "  Have 
you  —  " 

"  No,"  snapped  he.  "  I  have  n't,  and  I 
don't  mean  to  !  " 

"  Dear  me,"  said  she.  "  That  is  too 
bad." 

"  I  don't  see  why,"  said  he.  "  Is  there 
any  particular  reason  why  I  should  ?  " 


154          Among  the  Pond  People 

"  I  thought  you  might  have  just  hap- 
pened to,"  said  she,  "  and  I  should  like  to 
know  how  they  are." 

"  What  are  you  talking  about  ? "  snap- 
ped he. 

"  I  was  going  to  ask  if  you  had  seen 
the  Dragon-Fly  children  lately,"  she  said. 
And  as  she  spoke  she  made  sure  that  she 
could  not  slip.  She  felt  perfectly  safe 
where  she  was,  because  she  knew  that, 
no  matter  how  cross  he  might  be,  he 
could  not  reach  above  the  edges  of  his 
back-shell. 

"  Well,  why  did  n't  you  say  so  in  the 
first  place,"  he  snapped,  "  instead  of  sit- 
ting there  and  talking  nonsense  !  They 
are  all  right.  A  lot  of  the  Nymphs  are 
going  into  the  air  to-day  ! "  Now  that 
he  had  said  a  few  ugly  things,  he  began 
to  feel  better  natured.  "  You  Ve  changed 
a  good  deal  since  the  last  time  I  saw 
you." 

"  When  was  that  ?  "  asked  she. 


The  Oldest  Dragon-Fly  Nymph   155 

"It  was  one  day  when  I  came  remark- 
ably near  sitting  down  on  a  lot  of  you 
Dragon-Fly  children,"  he  chuckled.  "  You 
were  a  homely  young  Nymph  then,  and 
you  stuck  out  your  lower  lip  at  me." 

"  Oh  !  "  said  she.  "  Then  you  did  see 
us?" 

"  Of  course  I  did,"  answered  he. 
"  Have  n't  I  eyes  ?  I  'd  have  sat  down 
on  you,  too,  if  I  had  n't  wanted  to  see 
you  scramble  away.  The  larvae  always 
are  full  of  mischief,  but  then  they  are 
young.  You  Nymphs  were  old  enough 
to  know  better." 

"  I  suppose  we  were,"  she  said.  "  I 
did  n't  think  you  saw  us.  Why  did  n't 
you  tell  us  ?" 

"Oh,"  said  the  Snapping  Turtle,  "I 
thought  I  'd  have  a  secret.  If  I  can't 
keep  a  secret  for  myself,  I  know  that 
nobody  can  keep  it  for  me.  Secrets  can 
swim  faster  than  any  fish  in  the  pond  if 
you  once  let  them  get  away  from  you. 


156          Among  the  Pond  People 

I  thought  I  'd  better  not  tell.  I  might 
want  to  sit  on  you  some  other  time,  you 
know." 

"  You  '11  never  have  the  chance,"  said 
she,  with  a  twinkle  in  her  big  eyes.  "It 
is  my  turn  to  sit  on  you."  And  after 
that  they  were  very  good  friends  — as 
long  as  she  sat  on  the  middle  of  his  shell. 


THE  EELS'  MOVING-NIGHT 

HPHE  Eels  were  as  different  from  the 
Clams  as  people  well  could  be.  It 
was  not  alone  that  they  looked  unlike, 
but  that  they  had  such  different  ways  of 
enjoying  life.  The  Clams  were  chubby 
people,  each  comfortably  settled  in  his 
own  shell,  which  he  could  open  or  shut 
as  he  chose.  They  never  wanted  to  live 
anywhere  else,  or  to  get  beyond  the  edges 
of  their  own  pearl-lined  shells. 

The  Eels  were  long,  slender,  and  slip- 
pery people,  looking  even  more  like  snakes 
than  they  did  like  fishes.  They  were 
always  careful  to  tell  new  acquaintances, 
though,  that  they  were  not  even  related 
to  the  snakes.  "To  be  sure,"  they  would 
say,  "we  do  not  wear  our  fins  like  most 
157 


158          Among  the  Pond  People 

fishes,  but  that  is  only  a  matter  of  taste 
after  all.  We  should  find  them  dreadfully 
in  the  way  if  we  did."  And  that  was  just 
like  the  Eels  —  they  were  always  so  ready 
to  explain  everything  to  their  friends. 

They  were  great  talkers.  They  would 
talk  about  themselves,  and  their  friends, 
and  the  friends  of  their  friends,  and  the 
pond,  and  the  weather,  and  the  state  of 
the  mud,  and  what  everything  was  like 
yesterday,  and  what  it  would  be  likely  to 
be  like  to-morrow,  and  did  you  really 
think  so,  and  why  ?  The  Water-Adder 
used  to  say  that  they  were  the  easiest 
people  in  the  pond  to  visit  with,  for  all 
one  had  to  do  was  to  keep  still  and  look 
very  much  interested.  Perhaps  that  may 
have  been  why  the  Clams  and  they  were 
such  good  friends. 

The  Clams,  you  know,  were  a  quiet 
family.  Unless  a  Clam  was  very,  very 
much  excited,  he  never  said  more  than 
"  Yes,"  "  No,"  or  "  Indeed  ?  "  They  were 


The  Eels'  Moving- Night          159 

excellent  listeners  and  some  of  the  most 
popular  people  in  the  pond.  Those  who 
were  in  trouble  told  the  Clams,  and  they 
would  say,  "  Indeed,"  or  "  Ah,"  in  such 
a  nice  way  that  their  visitor  was  sure  to 
leave  feeling  better.  Others  who  wanted 
advice  would  go  to  them,  and  talk  over 
their  plans  and  tell  them  what  they  wanted 
to  do,  and  the  Clams  would  say,  "  Yes," 
and  then  the  visitors  would  go  away  quite 
decided,  and  say,  "  We  really  did  n't  know 
what  to  do  until  we  spoke  to  the  Clams 
about  it,  but  they  agree  with  us  perfectly." 
The  Clams  were  also  excellent  people  to 
keep  secrets,  and  as  the  Eels  were  forever 
telling  secrets,  that  was  all  very  well. 

Mother  Eel  was  fussy.  She  even  said 
so  herself.  And  if  a  thing  bothered  her, 
she  would  talk  and  talk  and  talk  until  even 
her  own  children  were  tired  of  hearing 
about  it.  Now  she  was  worrying  over 
the  pond  water. 

"  I  do  not  think  it  nearly  so  clean  as  it 


160          Among  the  Pond  People 

was  last  year,"  she  said,  "  and  the  mud  is 
getting  positively  dirty.  Our  family  are 
very  particular  about  that,  and  I  think  we 
may  have  to  move.  I  do  dread  the  mov- 
ing, though.  It  is  so  much  work  with  a 
family  the  size  of  mine,  and  Mr.  Eel  is  no 
help  at  all  with  the  children." 

She  was  talking  with  Mother  Mud 
Turtle  when  she  said  this,  and  the  little 
Eels  were  wriggling  all  around  her  as  she 
spoke.  Then  they  began  teasing  her  to 
go,  until  she  told  them  to  swim  away  at 
once  and  play  with  the  young  Minnows. 
"  I  'm  afraid  I  shall  have  to  go,"  said  she, 
"  if  only  on  account  of  the  children.  I 
want  them  to  see  something  of  the  world. 
It  is  so  dull  in  this  pond.  Were  you 
ever  out  of  it  ?  "  she  asked,  turning  sud- 
denly to  Mrs.  Mud  Turtle. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  answered  she.  "  I  go  quite 
often,  and  one  of  my  sons  took  a  very 
long  trip  to  the  meadow.  He  went  with 
some  boys.  It  was  most  exciting." 


SHE  WAS  TALKING  WITH   MOTHER  MUD  TURTLE.  Page  160 


The  Eels'  Moving- Night          161 

"  Is  that  the  one  with  the  —  peculiar 
back-shell  ?  "  asked  Mother  Eel. 

"Yes,"  replied  Mother  Mud  Turtle 
sweetly.  "He  is  very  modest  and  does 
not  care  to  talk  about  it  much,  but  I  am 
really  quite  pleased.  Some  people  travel 
and  show  no  sign  of  it  afterward.  One 
would  never  know  that  they  had  left 
home  (Mother  Eel  wondered  if  she  meant 
her),  but  with  him  it  is  different.  He 
shows  marks  of  having  been  in  the  great 
world  outside." 

Mother  Eel  wriggled  a  little  uneasily. 
"  I  think  I  must  tell  you  after  all,"  she  said. 
"  I  have  really  made  up  my  mind  to  go. 
Mr.  Eel  thinks  it  foolish,  and  would 
rather  stay  here,  but  I  am  positive  that 
we  can  find  a  better  place,  and  we  must 
consider  the  children.  He  thinks  he 
cares  as  much  for  them  as  I  do,  yet  he 
would  be  willing  to  have  them  stay  here 
forever.  He  was  hatched  here,  and  thinks 
the  pond  perfect.  We  get  to  talking 


1 62          Among  the  Pond  People 

about  it  sometimes,  and  I  say  to  him, 
1  Mr.  Eel,  where  would  those  children  be 
now  if  it  were  not  for  me  ? ' 

"  And  what  does  he  say  then  ?  "  asked 
the  Mud  Turtle  Mother. 

"  Nothing,"  answered  Mother  Eel,  with 
a  smart  little  wriggle.  "  There  is  nothing 
for  him  to  say.  Yes,  we  shall  certainly 
move.  I  am  only  waiting  for  the  right 
kind  of  night.  It  must  not  be  too  light, 
or  the  land  people  would  see  us ;  not  too 
dark,  or  we  could  not  see  them.  And 
then  the  grass  must  be  dewy.  It  would 
never  do  for  us  to  get  dry,  you  know,  or 
we  should  all  be  sick.  But  please  don't 
speak  of  this,  dear  Mrs.  Turtle.  I  would 
rather  leave  quietly  when  the  time 


comes." 


So  the  Mud  Turtle  Mother  remembered 
that  it  was  a  secret,  and  told  nobody  ex- 
cept the  Mud  Turtle  Father,  and  he  did 
not  speak  of  it  to  anybody  but  the  Snap- 
ping Turtle. 


The  Eels'  Moving-Night          163 

"  Did  you  say  that  it  was  a  secret?" 
asked  the  Snapping  Turtle. 

"Yes,"  said  the  Mud  Turtle  Father, 
"  It  is  a  great  secret." 

"  Humph  !"  said  the  Snapping  Turtle. 
"  Then  why  did  you  tell  me  ?" 

That  same  day  when  the  Stickleback 
Father  came  to  look  for  nineteen  or 
twenty  of  his  children  who  were  missing, 
Mother  Eel  told  him  about  her  plans.  "  I 
thought  you  would  be  interested  in  hear- 
ing of  it,"  she  said,  "  but  I  shall  not  men- 
tion it  to  anybody  else." 

"  You  may  be  sure  I  shall  not  speak  of 
it,"  said  he.  And  probably  he  would  not 
have  told  a  person,  if  it  had  not  been  that 
he  forgot  and  talked  of  it  with  the  Snails. 
He  also  forgot  to  say  that  it  was  a  secret, 
and  so  they  spoke  freely  of  it  to  the 
Crayfishes  and  the  Caddis  Worms. 

The  Caddis  Worms  were  playing  with 
the  Tadpoles  soon  after  this,  and  one  of 
them  whispered  to  a  Tadpole  right  before 


164          Among  the  Pond  People 

the  others,  although  he  knew  perfectly 
well  that  it  was  rude  for  him  to  do  so. 
"  Now,  don't  you  ever  tell,"  said  he  aloud. 

"  Uh-uh ! "  answered  the  Tadpole, 
and  everybody  knew  that  he  meant  "  No," 
even  if  they  had  n't  seen  him  wave  his 
hindlegs  sidewise.  Of  course,  not  having 
the  right  kind  of  neck  for  it,  he  could  n't 
shake  his  head. 

Then  the  other  Tadpoles  and  Caddis 
Worms  wanted  to  tell  secrets,  and  they 
kept  whispering  to  each  other  and  saying 
out  loud,  "  Now  don't  you  ever  tell." 
When  a  Caddis  Worm  told  a  Tadpole 
anything,  he  said,  "  The  Eels  are  going 
to  move  away."  And  when  a  Tadpole 
told  a  secret  to  a  Caddis  Worm,  he  just 
moved  his  lips  and  said,  "  Siss-el,  siss-el, 
siss-el-siss.  I  'm  only  making  believe, 
you  know."  But  he  was  sure  to  add  out 
loud,  "  Now  don't  you  tell."  And  the 
Caddis  Worm  would  answer,  "Uh-uh  !" 

The  Eel  Mother  also  spoke  to  the  Big- 


The  Eels'  Moving-Night          165 

gest  Frog,  asking  him  to  watch  the  grass 
for  her  and  tell  her  when  it  was  dewy 
enough  for  moving.  He  was  afraid  he 
might  forget  it,  and  so  told  his  sister  and 
asked  her  to  help  him  remember.  And 
she  was  afraid  that  she  might  forget,  so 
she  spoke  to  her  friend,  the  Green  Brown 
Frog,  about  it.  The  Yellow  Brown  Frog 
afterward  said  that  he  heard  it  from  her. 

One  night  it  was  neither  too  dark  nor 
too  light,  and  the  dew  lay  heavy  on  the 
grass.  Then  Mother  Eel  said  to  her  child- 
ren, "  Now  stop  your  wriggling  and  listen 
to  me,  every  one  of  you  !  We  shall  move 
because  the  mud  here  is  so  dirty.  You 
are  going  out  into  the  great  world,  and  I 
want  you  to  remember  everything  you  feel 
and  see.  You  may  never  have  another 
chance." 

The  little  Eels  were  so  excited  that 
they  could  n't  keep  still,  and  she  had  to 
wait  for  them  to  stop  wriggling.  When 
they  were  quiet,  she  went  on.  "  All  the 


1 66          Among  the  Pond  People 

Eels  are  going  — your  uncles  and  aunts 
and  cousins  — and  you  children  must  keep 
with  the  older  ones.  Be  careful  where 
you  wriggle  to,  and  don't  get  on  any- 
body else's  tail." 

She  led  the  way  out  of  the  water  and 
wriggled  gracefully  up  the  bank,  although 
it  was  quite  steep  at  that  place.  "  I  came 
this  way,"  she  said,  "  because  I  felt  more 
as  though  this  was  the  way  to  come." 
She  closed  her  mouth  very  firmly  as  she 
spoke.  Mr.  Eel  had  thought  another 
way  better.  They  had  to  pass  through 
crowds  of  pond  people  to  reach  the  shore, 
for  everybody  had  kept  awake  and  was 
watching.  The  older  ones  cried  out, 
"  Good-bye  ;  we  shall  miss  you,"  and 
waved  their  fins  or  their  legs,  or  their 
tails,  whichever  seemed  the  handiest. 
The  younger  ones  teased  the  little  Eels 
and  tried  to  hold  them  back,  and  told 
them  they'd  miss  lots  of  fun,  and  that 
they  guessed  they  'd  wish  themselves  back 


The  Eels'  Moving-Night          167 

in  the  pond  again.  When  they  got  onto 
the  shore,  the  Frogs  and  the  Mud  Turtles 
were  there,  and  it  was  a  long  time  before 
they  could  get  started  on  their  journey. 
One  of  the  little  Eels  was  missing,  and 
his  mother  had  to  go  back  for  him.  She 
found  that  a  mischievous  young  Stickle- 
back had  him  by  the  tail. 

When  at  last  they  were  all  together  on 
the  bank,  the  Eel  Father  said  to  his  wife, 
"  Are  you  sure  that  the  Cranes  and  Fish 
Hawks  don't  know  about  our  moving? 
Because  if  they  did  - 

"  I  know,"  she  said.  "  It  would  be 
dreadful  if  they  found  out  ;  and  we  have 
been  so  late  in  getting  started.  We  shall 
have  to  stop  at  the  very  first  water  we 
find  now,  whether  we  like  it  or  not."  She 
lay  still  and  thought.  "  I  have  a  feeling," 
said  she,  "  that  we  should  go  this  way." 
So  that  way  they  went,  dragging  their 
yellow  bellies  over  the  ground  as  carefully 
as  they  could,  their  dark  green  backs  with 


1 68          Among  the  Pond  People 

their  long  fringes  of  back  fins  hardly 
showing  in  the  grass.  It  was  a  good 
thing  that  their  skin  was  so  fat  and  thick, 
for  sometimes  they  had  to  cross  rough 
places  that  scraped  it  dreadfully  and  even 
rumpled  the  tiny  scales  that  were  in  it, 
while  their  long  fringes  of  belly  fins  be- 
came worn  and  almost  ragged.  "If  your 
scales  were  on  the  outside,"  said  their 
father,  "  like  those  of  other  fishes,  you 
would  n't  have  many  left." 

Mother  Eel  was  very  tired  and  did  not 
say  much.  Her  friends  began  to  fear  that 
she  was  ill.  At  last  she  spoke,  "  I  do  not 
see,"  she  said,  "  how  people  found  out 
that  we  were  to  move." 

"  You  did  n't  tell  anybody  ?  "  said  Mr. 
Eel. 

"  No  indeed  !  "  said  she  ;  and  she  really 
believed  it.  That  was  because  she  had 
talked  so  much  that  she  could  n't  re- 
member what  she  did  say.  It  is  always 
so  with  those  that  talk  too  much. 


THE  CRAYFISH  MOTHER 

""THREE  Stickleback  Mothers  and  sev- 
eral Clams  were  visiting  under  the 
lily-pads  in  the  early  morning.  Mother  Eel 
was  also  there.  "  Yes,"  she  said  "  I  am  glad 
to  come  back  and  be  among  my  old  friends, 
and  the  children  are  happier  here.  As  I 
often  tell  Mr.  Eel,  there  is  no  place  like 
one's  home.  We  had  a  hard  journey,  but 
I  do  not  mind  that.  We  are  rested  now, 
and  travel  does  teach  people  so  much.  I 
should  think  you  would  get  dreadfully 
tired  of  being  in  the  water  all  the  time. 
I  want  my  children  to  see  the  world. 
Now  they  know  grass,  and  trees,  and  air, 
and  dry  ground.  There  are  not  many 
children  of  their  age  who  know  more  than 

they.     We  stayed  in  a  brook  the  one  day 
169 


1 70          Among  the  Pond  People 

we  were  gone,  so  they  have  felt  running 
water  too.  It  was  clean — I  will  say  that 
for  it  —  but  it  was  no  place  for  Eels,  and 
so  we  came  back." 

There  is  no  telling  how  long  she  would 
have  kept  on  talking  if  she  had  not  been 
called  away.  As  soon  as  she  left,  the 
Sticklebacks  began  to  talk  about  her. 

"  So  she  thinks  we  must  be  tired  of 
staying  in  the  water  all  the  time,"  said 
one.  "  It  does  n't  tire  me  nearly  so  much 
as  it  would  to  go  dragging  myself  over 
the  country,  wearing  out  my  fins  on  the 
ground." 

"Indeed?"  said  a  Clam,  to  whom  she 
turned  as  she  spoke. 

"  Well,  I  '11  tell  you  what  I  think,"  said 
another  Stickleback  Mother.  "  I  think 
that  if  she  did  n't  care  so  much  for  travel 
herself,  she  would  not  be  dragging  her 
family  around  to  learn  grass  and  trees. 
Some  night  they  will  be  learning  Owls  or 
men,  and  that  will  be  the  end  of  them ! " 


The  Crayfish  Mother  171 

"  I  do  not  believe  in  it  at  all,"  said  the 
first  speaker.  "  I  certainly  would  not 
want  my  sons  to  learn  these  things,  for 
they  must  grow  up  to  be  good  nest- 
builders  and  baby-tenders.  I  have  told 
their  fathers  particularly  to  bring  them 
up  to  be  careful  housekeepers.  With  my 
daughters,  it  is  different." 

For  a  long  time  nobody  spoke  ;  then  a 
Clam  said,  "  What  a  difference  there  is 
in  mothers  !  "  It  quite  startled  the  Stickle- 
backs to  hear  a  Clam  say  so  much.  It 
showed  how  interested  he  was,  and  well 
he  might  be.  The  Clam  who  brings  up 
children  has  to  do  it  alone,  and  be  both 
father  and  mother  to  them,  and  of  course 
that  is  hard  work.  It  is  hard,  too,  be- 
cause when  a  little  Clam  is  naughty,  his 
parent  can  never  say  that  he  takes  his 
naughtiness  from  any  one  else. 

"  And  there  is  a  difference  in  fathers 
too/'  exclaimed  one  fine-looking  Stickle- 
back Mother,  "/say  that  a  father's  place 


172          Among  the  Pond  People 

is  by  the  nest,  and  that  if  he  does  his  work 
there  well,  he  will  not  have  much  time  to 
want  to  travel,  or  to  loaf  around  by  the 
shore."  The  Clams  looked  at  each  other 
and  said  nothing.  Some  people  thought 
that  the  Stickleback  Mothers  were  lazy. 

Just  then  a  Crayfish  Mother  came 
swimming  slowly  along,  stopping  often 
to  rest.  Her  legs  were  almost  useless, 
there  were  so  many  little  Crayfishes  cling- 
ing to  them. 

"  Now  look  at  her,"  said  one  Stickle- 
back. "  Just  look  at  her.  She  laid  her 
eggs  at  the  beginning  of  last  winter  and 
fastened  them  to  her  legs.  Said  she  was 
so  afraid  something  would  happen  if  she 
left  them,  and  that  this  was  a  custom 
in  her  family  anyway.  Now  they  have 
hatched,  and  her  children  hang  on  to  her 
in  the  same  way." 

The  Crayfish  Mother  stopped  with  a 
sigh.  "  Is  n't  it  dreadfully  warm  ?  "  said 
she. 


The  Crayfish  Mother  173 

"  We  have  n't  found  it  so,"  answered 
the  Sticklebacks,  while  the  Clams  mur- 
mured "No." 

"  Let  me  take  some  of  your  children," 
said  one  Stickleback.  "  Perhaps  carry- 
ing them  has  made  you  warm  and  tired." 

The  Crayfish  stuck  her  tail  -  paddles 
into  the  mud,  and  spread  her  pinching- 
claws  in  front  of  her  family.  "  Oh  no, 
thank  you,"  said  she.  "  They  won't  be 
contented  with  any  one  but  me." 

"  That  must  make  it  hard  for  you," 
said  another  Stickleback  politely.  She 
was  thinking  how  quickly  she  would  shake 
off  the  little  Crayfishes  if  they  were  her 
children. 

"  It  does,"  answered  their  mother.  "It 
is  hard,  for  I  carried  the  eggs  on  my  legs 
all  through  the  cold  weather  and  until  it 
was  very  warm  again  ;  and  now  that  they 
are  hatched,  the  children  hang  on  with 
their  pinching-claws.  Still,  I  can't  bear 
to  shake  them  off,  poor  little  things ! " 


1 74         Among  the  Pond  People 

She  held  up  first  one  leg  and  then  an- 
other to  show  off  her  dangling  babies. 

"  I  don't  know  what  will  happen  to 
them  when  I  cast  my  shell,"  said  she.  "  I 
shall  have  to  soon,  for  I  can  hardly 
breathe  in  it.  My  sister  changed  hers 
some  time  ago,  and  her  new  one  is  get- 
ting hard  already." 

"  Oh,  they  '11  be  all  right,"  said  a  Stick- 
leback cheerfully.  "  Their  fathers  tell  me 
that  my  children  learn  remarkably  fast 
how  to  look  out  for  themselves." 

"  But  my  children  can't  walk  yet,"  said 
the  Crayfish  Mother,  "and  they  don't 
know  how  to  swim." 

"What  of  that?"  asked  a  Stickleback, 
who  was  beginning  to  lose  her  patience. 
"  They  can  learn,  can't  they  ?  They  have 
eight  legs  apiece,  have  n't  they,  besides 
the  ones  that  have  pincers  ?  Is  n't  that 
enough  to  begin  on  ?  And  have  n't  they 
tail-paddles?" 

"  I  suppose  so,"  said  their  mother,  with 


The  Crayfish  Mother  175 

a  sigh,  "but  they  don't  seem  to  want  to 
go.  I  must  put  them  to  sleep  now  and 
try  to  get  a  little  rest  myself,  for  the  sun 
is  well  up." 

The  next  night  she  awakened  and  re- 
membered what  the  Sticklebacks  had 
said,  so  she  thought  she  would  try  shak- 
ing her  children  off.  "  It  is  for  your  own 
good,"  she  said,  and  she  waved  first  one 
leg  and  then  another.  When  she  got  four 
of  her  legs  free,  and  stood  on  them  to  shake 
the  other  four,  her  children  scrambled 
back  to  her  and  took  hold  again  with 
their  strong  little  pinching-claws.  Then 
she  gave  it  up.  "  You  dear  tiny  things  ! " 
she  said.  "  But  I  do  wish  you  would  walk 
instead  of  making  me  carry  you." 

"We  don't  want  to  ! "  they  cried  ;  "  we 
don't  know  how." 

"  There,  there  !  "  said  their  mother. 
"  No,  to  be  sure  you  don't." 

The  next  night,  though,  they  had  to  let 
go,  for  their  mother  was  casting  her  shell. 


176          Among  the  Pond  People 

When  it  was  off  she  lay  weak  and  help- 
less on  the  pond-bottom,  and  her  children 
lay  around  her.  They  behaved  very  badly 
indeed.  "  Come  here  and  let  me  catch 
hold  of  you,"  cried  one.  "  I  can't  walk," 
said  another,  "  because  I  don't  know  how." 

Some  of  them  were  so  cross  that  they 
just  lay  on  their  backs  and  kicked  with  all 
their  eight  feet,  and  screamed,  "  I  wont 
try  !  "  It  was  dreadful  ! 

The  Crayfish  Mother  was  too  weak  to 
move,  and  when  the  Wise  Old  Crayfish 
came  along  she  spoke  to  him.  "  My  child- 
ren will  not  walk,"  said  she,  "  even  when  I 
tell  them  to."  He  knew  that  it  was  because 
when  she  had  told  them  to  do  things  be- 
fore, she  had  not  made  them  mind. 

"  I  will  see  what  I  can  do,"  said  he, 
"  but  you  must  not  say  a  word."  He 
walked  backward  to  where  they  were,  and 
kept  his  face  turned  toward  their  mother, 
which  was  polite  of  him.  "  Do  you  want 
the  Eels  to  find  you  here  ?  "  he  said,  in 


The  Crayfish  Mother  177 

his  gruffest  voice.  "  If  you  don't,  you  'd 
better  run." 

What  a  scrambling  there  was  !  In  one 
way  or  another,  every  little  Crayfish 
scampered  away.  Some  went  forward, 
some  went  sidewise,  and  some  went  back- 
ward. Some  did  n't  keep  step  with  them- 
selves very  well  at  first,  but  they  soon 
found  out  how.  Even  the  Grossest  ones, 
who  were  lying  on  their  backs  flopped 
over  and  were  off. 

The  Wise  Old  Crayfish  turned  to  their 
mother.  "  It  is  no  trouble  to  teach  ten- 
legged  children  to  walk,"  said  he,  "  if  you 
go  at  it  in  the  right  way." 

The  little  Crayfishes  soon  got  together 
again,  and  while  they  were  talking,  one  of 
their  many  aunts  came  along  with  all 
her  children  hanging  to  her  legs.  Then 
the  little  Crayfishes  who  had  just  learned 
to  walk,  pointed  their  pinching-claws  at 
their  cousins,  and  said,  "  Sh-h-h  !  'Fore 
I  'd  let  my  mother  carry  me  !  Babies  !  " 


TWO    LITTLE    CRAYFISHES 
QUARREL 


T^HE  day  after  the  Eels  left,  the  pond 
*  people  talked  of  nothing  else.  It 
was  not  that  they  were  so  much  missed, 
for  the  Eels,  you  know,  do  not  swim 
around  in  the  daytime.  They  lie  quietly 
in  the  mud  and  sleep  or  talk.  It  is  only 
at  night  that  they  are  really  lively.  Still, 
as  the  Mother  Mud  Turtle  said,  "  They 
had  known  that  they  were  there,  and  the 
mud  seemed  empty  without  them." 

The  larger  people  had  been  sorry  to 
have  them  go,  and  some  of  them  felt  that 
without  the  Eels  awake  and  stirring,  the 
pond  was  hardly  a  safe  place  at  night. 

"  I   think  it  is  a  good  deal  safer,"  re- 
marked a  Minnow,  who  usually  said  what 
178 


Two  Little  Crayfishes  Quarrel     1 79 

she  thought.  "  I  have  always  believed 
that  the  Eels  knew  what  became  of  some 
of  my  brothers  and  sisters,  although,  of 
course,  I  do  not  know." 

"Why  did  n't  you  ask  them?"  said  a 
Stickleback. 

"  Why  ?  "  replied  the  Minnow.  "  If  I 
had  gone  to  the  Eels  and  asked  them 
that,  my  other  brothers  and  sisters  would 
soon  be  wondering  what  had  become  of 


me." 


"  I  have  heard  some  queer  things  about 
the  Eels  myself,"  said  the  Stickleback, 
"  but  I  have  never  felt  much  afraid  of 
them.  I  suppose  I  am  braver  because  I 
wear  so  many  of  my  bones  on  the  out- 
side." 

Just  then  a  Wise  Old  Crayfish  came 
along  walking  sidewise.  "  What  do  you 
think  about  the  Eels  ?  "  asked  the  Stickle- 
back, turning  suddenly  to  him. 

The  Crayfish  stuck  his  tail  into  the 
mud.  He  often  did  this  when  he  was 


180          Among  the  Pond  People 

surprised.  It  seemed  to  help  him  think. 
When  he  had  thought  for  a  while,  he 
waved  his  big  pinching-claws  and  said, 
"  It  would  be  better  for  me  not  to  tell 
what  I  think.  I  used  to  live  near  them." 
This  showed  that  the  Wise  Old  Cray- 
fish had  been  well  brought  up,  and  knew 
he  should  not  say  unpleasant  things  about 
people  if  he  could  help  it.  When  there 
was  need  of  it,  he  could  tell  unpleasant 
truths,  and  indeed  that  very  evening  he 
did  say  what  he  thought  of  the  Eels. 
That  was  when  he  was  teaching  some 
young  Crayfishes,  his  pupils.  Their  mother 
had  brought  up  a  large  family,  and  was 
not  strong.  She  had  just  cast  the  shell 
which  she  had  worn  for  a  year,  and  now 
she  was  weak  and  helpless  until  the  new 
one  should  harden  on  her.  "  It  is  such  a 
bother,"  she  said,  "  to  keep  changing  one's 
shell  in  this  way,  but  it  is  a  comfort  to 
think  that  the  new  one  will  last  a  year 
when  I  do  get  it." 


Two  Little  Crayfishes  Quarrel     181 

While  their  mother  was  so  weak,  the 
Wise  Old  Crayfish  amused  the  children, 
and  taught  them  things  which  all  Cray- 
fishes should  know.  Every  evening  they 
gathered  around  him,  some  of  them  swim- 
ming to  him,  some  walking  forward,  some 
sidewise,  and  some  backward.  It  made 
no  difference  to  them  which  way  they 
came.  They  were  restless  pupils,  and 
their  teacher  could  not  keep  them  from 
looking  behind  them.  Each  one  had  so 
many  eyes  that  he  could  look  at  the 
teacher  with  a  few,  and  at  the  other  little 
Crayfishes  with  a  few  more,  and  still  have 
a  good  many  eyes  left  with  which  to  watch 
the  Tadpoles.  These  eyes  were  arranged 
in  two  big  bunches,  and,  unless  you  looked 
very  closely,  you  might  think  that  they 
had  only  two  eyes  apiece.  They  had 
good  ears,  and  there  were  also  fine  smell- 
ing-bristles  growing  from  their  heads. 
The  Wise  Old  Crayfish  sometimes  said 
that  each  of  his  pupils  should  sit  in  a 


1 82          Among  the  Pond  People 

circle  of  six  teachers,  so  that  he  might  be 
taught  on  all  sides  at  once. 

"  That  is  the  way  in  which  children 
should  learn,"  he  said,  "  all  around  at 
once.  But  I  do  the  best  I  can,  and  I  at 
least  teach  one  side  of  each." 

This  evening  the  Wise  Old  Crayfish 
was  very  sleepy.  There  had  been  so 
much  talking  and  excitement  during  the 
day  that  he  had  not  slept  so  much  as 
usual  ;  and  now,  when  he  should  have 
been  wide  awake,  he  felt  exceedingly  dull 
and  stupid.  When  he  tried  to  walk,  his 
eight  legs  stumbled  over  each  other,  and 
the  weak  way  in  which  he  waved  his  pinch- 
ing-claw  legs  showed  how  tired  he  was. 

After  he  had  told  his  pupils  the  best 
way  to  hold  their  food  with  their  pinch- 
ing-claws,  and  had  explained  to  them  how 
it  was  chewed  by  the  teeth  in  their  stom- 
achs, one  mischievous  little  fellow  called 
out,  "  I  want  to  know  about  the  Eels. 
My  mother  would  never  let  me  go  near 


Two  Little  Crayfishes  Quarrel     183 

them,  and  now  they  Ve  moved  away,  and 
I  won't  ever  see  them,  and  I  think  it 's 
just  horrid." 

41  Eels,  my  children,"  said  their  teacher, 
"  are  long,  slender,  sharp-nosed,  slippery 
people,  with  a  fringe  of  fins  along  their 
backs,  and  another  fringe  along  their 
bellies.  They  breathe  through  very  small 
gill-openings  in  the  backs  of  their  heads. 
They  have  large  mouths,  and  teeth  in  their 
mouths,  and  they  are  always  sticking  out 
their  lower  jaws." 

"And  how  do-  '  began  the  Biggest 
Little  Crayfish. 

"  Ask  me  that  to-morrow,"  said  their 
teacher,  stretching  his  eight  walking  legs 
and  his  two  pinching-claw  legs  and  his  tail 
paddles,  "  but  remember  this  one  thing  : 
—if  you  ever  see  an  Eel,  get  out  of  his 
way.  Don't  stop  to  look  at  him." 

"  We  won't,"  said  one  little  Crayfish, 
who  thought  it  smart  to  be  saucy.  "  We  '11 
look  to  stop  at  him."  All  of  which  meant 


184          Among  the  Pond  People 

nothing  at  all  and  was  only  said  to  annoy 
his  teacher. 

They  scrambled  away  over  the  pond-bot- 
tom, upsetting  Snails,  jiggling  the  young 
Clams,  and  racing  with  each  other  where 
the  bottom  was  smooth.  "  Beat  you 
running  backward  ! "  cried  the  Saucy 
Crayfish  to  the  Biggest  Little  Crayfish, 
and  they  scampered  along  backward  in 
the  moonlit  water.  There  was  an  old  log 
on  the  bottom  of  the  pond,  and  they  sat 
on  that  to  rest.  The  Biggest  Little 
Crayfish  had  beaten.  "  I  would  like  to 
see  an  Eel,"  said  he. 

"  I  'd  like  to  see  them  running  on  the 
land,"  said  the  saucy  one. 

"  Pooh  ! "  said  the  biggest  one.  "  That 's 
all  you  know  !  They  don't  run  on  land." 

"  Well,  I  guess  they  do,"  replied  the 
saucy  one.  "  I  know  as  much  about  it  as 
you  do  !  " 

"  Eels  swim.  They  don't  run,"  said 
the  biggest  one.  "  Guess  I  know-'" 


Two  Little  Crayfishes  Quarrel     185 

"  Well,  they  don't  swim  in  air,"  said  the 
saucy  one.  "  That 's  the  stuff  that  lies 
on  top  of  the  water  and  the  ground,  and 
people  can't  swim  in  it.  So  there  !  " 

"  Well,  I  Ve  seen  the  Wild  Ducks  swim 
in  it  !  They  swim  with  their  legs  in  the 
water,  and  with  their  wings  in  the  air," 
said  the  biggest  one. 

"  I  don't  believe  it,"  said  the  saucy  one. 
"  Anyhow,  Eels  run  on  land." 

"  Eels  swim  on  land,"  said  the  biggest 
one. 

"  Eels  run  !  " 

"Eels  swim  !" 

"  Run  ! " 

"  Swim  ! " 

Then  the  two  little  Crayfishes,  who  had 
been  talking  louder  and  louder  and  becom- 
ing more  and  more  angry,  glared  at  each 
other,  and  jerked  their  feelers,  and  waved 
their  pinching-claws  in  a  very,  very  ugly 
way. 

They  did  not  notice  a  great  green  and 


1 86          Among  the  Pond  People 

yellow  person  swimming  gently  toward 
them,  and  they  did  not  know  that  the 
Eels  had  come  back  to  live  in  the  old 
pond  again.  Mother  Eel  opened  her  big 
mouth  very  wide.  "  On  land,"  she  said 
decidedly,  as  she  swallowed  the  Biggest 
Little  Crayfish,  "  Eels  wriggle."  Then 
she  swallowed  the  Saucy  Crayfish. 

41  There  ! "  said  she.  "  I  Ve  stopped  that 
dreadful  quarrel."  And  she  looked  around 
with  a  satisfied  smile. 


MOTHER  EEL  OPENED  HER  BIO  MOUTH.  Page  186 


THE  LUCKY  MINK 


the  warm  weather,  the  Minks 
did  not  come  often  to  the  pond. 
Then  they  had  to  stay  nearer  home  and 
care  for  their  babies.  In  the  winter, 
when  food  was  not  so  plentiful  and  their 
youngest  children  were  old  enough  to 
come  with  them,  they  visited  there  every 
day.  It  was  not  far  from  their  home. 

The  Minks  lived  by  a  waterfall  in  the 
river,  and  had  burrows  in  the  banks,  where 
the  young  Minks  stayed  until  they  were 
large  enough  to  go  out  into  the  world. 
Then  the  fathers  and  mothers  were  very 
busy,  for  in  each  home  there  were  four 
or  five  or  six  children,  hungry  and  rest- 
less, and  needing  to  be  taught  many  things. 

They  were  related  to  the  Weasels  who 
187 


1 88          Among  the  Pond  People 

lived  up  by  the  farmyard,  and  had  the 
same  slender  and  elegant  bodies  and  short 
legs  as  they.  Like  the  Weasels,  they 
sometimes  climbed  trees,  but  that  was  not 
often.  They  did  most  of  their  hunting 
in  the  river,  swimming  with  their  bodies 
almost  all  under  water,  and  diving  and 
turning  and  twisting  gracefully  and 
quickly.  When  they  hunted  on  land, 
they  could  tell  by  smelling  just  which 
way  to  go  for  their  food. 

The  Minks  were  a  very  dark  brown, 
and  scattered  through  their  close,  soft  fur 
were  long,  shining  hairs  of  an  even  darker 
shade,  which  made  their  coats  very  beauti- 
ful indeed.  The  fur  was  darker  on  their 
backs  than  on  the  under  part  of  their 
bodies,  and  their  tapering,  bushy  tails 
were  almost  black.  Their  under  jaws 
were  white,  and  they  were  very  proud  of 
them.  Perhaps  it  was  because  they  had 
so  little  white  fur  that  they  thought  so 
much  of  it.  You  know  that  is  often 


The  Lucky  Mink  189 

the  way  —  we  think  most  of  those  things 
which  are  scarce  or  hard  to  get. 

There  was  one  old  Mink  by  the  river 
who  had  a  white  tip  on  his  tail,  and  that 
is  something  which  many  people  have 
never  seen.  It  is  even  more  uncommon 
than  for  Minks  to  have  white  upper  lips, 
and  that  happens  only  once  in  a  great  while. 
This  Mink  was  a  bachelor,  and  nobody 
knew  why.  Some  people  said  it  was  be- 
cause he  was  waiting  to  find  a  wife  with  a 
white  tip  on  her  tail,  yet  that  could  not 
have  been,  for  he  was  too  wise  to  wait  for 
something  which  might  never  happen. 
However  it  was  he  lived  alone,  and  fished 
and  hunted  just  for  himself.  He  could 
dive  more  quickly,  stay  under  water 
longer,  and  hunt  by  scent  better  than  any 
other  Mink  round  there.  His  fur  was 
sleeker  and  more  shining  than  that  of  his 
friends,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  sis- 
ters of  his  friends  thought  that  he  ought 
to  marry. 


Among  the  Pond  People 

When  the  Minks  visited  together,  some- 
body was  sure  to  speak  of  the  Bachelor's 
luck.  They  said  that,  whatever  he  did, 
he  was  always  lucky.  "It  is  all  because 
of  a  white  tip  on  his  tail,"  they  said. 
"  That  makes  him  lucky." 

The  young  Minks  heard  their  fathers 
and  mothers  talking,  and  wished  that  they 
had  been  born  with  white  tips  on  their 
tails  so  that  they  could  be  lucky  too. 
Once  the  Bachelor  heard  them  wishing 
this,  and  he  smiled  and  showed  his  beau- 
tiful teeth,  and  told  them  that  it  was  not 
the  tip  of  his  tail  but  his  whole  body  that 
made  him  lucky.  He  did  not  smile  to 
show  his  teeth,  because  he  was  not  at  all 
vain.  He  just  smiled  and  showed  his 
teeth. 

There  was  a  family  of  young  Minks 
who  lived  at  the  foot  of  the  waterfall, 
where  the  water  splashed  and  dashed  in 
the  way  they  liked  best.  There  were 
four  brothers  and  two  sisters  in  this 


USED  TO  FOLLOW  HIM  AROUND.  Page  191 


The  Lucky  Mink  191 

family,  and  the  brothers  were  bigger  than 
the  sisters  (as  Mink  Brothers  always  are), 
although  they  were  all  the  same  age.  One 
was  very  much  larger  than  any  of  the 
rest,  and  so  they  called  him  Big  Brother. 
He  thought  there  was  never  such  a  fine 
Mink  as  the  Bachelor,  and  he  used  to  fol- 
low him  around,  and  look  at  the  tip  on  his 
tail,  and  wish  that  he  was  lucky  like  him. 
He  wished  to  be  just  like  him  in  every  way 
but  one  ;  he  did  not  want  to  be  a  bachelor. 
The  other  young  Minks  laughed  at 
Big  Brother,  and  asked  him  if  he  thought 
his  tail  would  turn  white  if  he  followed 
the  Bachelor  long  enough.  Big  Brother 
stood  it  very  patiently  for  a  while  ;  then 
he  snarled  at  them,  and  showed  his  teeth 
without  smiling,  and  said  he  would  fight 
anybody  who  spoke  another  word  about 
it.  Minks  are  very  brave  and  very  fierce, 
and  never  know  when  to  stop  if  they  have 
begun  to  fight  ;  so,  after  that,  nobody 
dared  tease  Big  Brother  by  saying  any- 


192          Among  the  Pond  People 

thing  more  about  the  Bachelor.  Some- 
times they  did  look  at  his  tail  and  smile, 
but  they  never  spoke,  and  he  pretended 
not  to  know  what  they  meant  by  it. 

A  few  days  after  this,  the  Bachelor  was 
caught  in  a  trap  —  a  common,  clumsy, 
wooden  trap,  put  together  with  nails  and 
twine.  It  was  not  near  the  river,  and 
none  of  his  friends  would  have  found 
him,  if  Big  Brother  had  not  happened 
along.  He  could  hardly  believe  what  he 
saw.  Was  it  possible  that  a  trap  had 
dared  to  catch  a  Mink  with  a  white- 
tipped  tail  ?  Then  he  heard  the  Bachelor 
groan,  and  he  knew  that  it  was  so.  He 
hurried  up  to  where  the  trap  was. 

"  Can't  you  get  out  ?  "  said  he. 

"  No,"  said  the  Bachelor.  "  I  can't. 
The  best  way  to  get  out  is  not  to  get  in — 
and  I  Ve  gotten  in." 

"  Can't  you  do  something  with  your 
lucky  tail  to  make  the  trap  open  ?  "  asked 
Big  Brother. 


The  Lucky  Mink  193 

"  I  could  do  something  with  my  teeth," 
answered  the  Bachelor,  "  if  they  were 
only  where  the  tip  of  my  tail  is.  Why 
are  Minks  always  walking  into  traps?" 
He  was  trying  hard  not  to  be  cross,  but 
his  eyes  showed  how  he  felt,  and  that  was 
very  cross  indeed. 

Then  Big  Brother  became  much  ex- 
cited. "  I  have  good  teeth,"  said  he, 
"  Tell  me  what  to  do." 

"  If  you  will  help  me  out,"  said  the 
Bachelor,  "  I  will  give  you  my  luck." 

"And  what  shall  I  do  with  the  tail  I 
have  ? "  asked  the  young  Mink,  who 
thought  that  the  Bachelor  was  to  give  him 
his  white-tipped  tail. 

"  Never  mind  now,"  answered  the  Bache- 
lor, and  he  told  the  young  Mink  just  where 
to  gnaw.  For  a  long  time  there  was  no 
sound  but  that  of  the  young  Mink's  teeth 
on  the  wood  of  the  trap.  The  Bachelor 
was  too  brave  to  groan  or  make  a  fuss, 
when  he  knew  there  was  anybody  around 


194          Among  the  Pond  People 

to  hear.  Big  Brother's  mouth  became 
very  sore,  and  his  stomach  became  very 
empty,  but  still  he  kept  at  work.  He  was 
afraid  somebody  would  come  for  the  trap 
and  the  Mink  in  it,  before  he  finished. 

"  Now  try  it,"  said  he,  after  he  had 
gnawed  for  quite  a  while.  The  Bachelor 
backed  out  as  far  as  he  could,  but  his 
body  stuck  in  the  hole.  "  You  are  rump- 
ling your  beautiful  fur,"  cried  the  young 
Mink. 

"  Never  mind  the  fur,"  answered  the 
Bachelor.  "  I  can  smooth  that  down 
afterward.  You  will  have  to  gnaw  a 
little  on  this  side."  And  he  raised  one  of 
his  hind  feet  to  show  where  he  meant.  It 
was  a  beautiful  hindfoot,  thickly  padded, 
and  with  short  partly  webbed  toes,  and  no 
hair  at  all  growing  between  them.  The 
claws  were  short,  sharp,  and  curved. 

Big  Brother  gnawed  away.  "  Now  try 
it,"  said  he.  The  Bachelor  backed  care- 
fully out  through  the  opening  and  stood 


The  Lucky  Mink  195 

there,  looking  tired  and  hungry  and  very 
much  rumpled. 

"  You  are  a  fine  young  Mink,"  said  he. 
"  We  will  get  something  to  eat,  and  then 
we  will  see  about  making  you  lucky." 

They  went  to  the  river  bank  and  had  a 
good  dinner.  The  Bachelor  ate  more 
than  Big  Brother,  for  his  mouth  was  not 
sore.  But  Big  Brother  was  very  happy. 
He  thought  how  handsome  he  would  look 
with  a  white-tipped  tail,  and  how,  after  he 
had  that,  he  could  surely  marry  whoever 
he  wished.  It  was  the  custom  among  his 
people  to  want  to  marry  the  best  looking 
and  strongest.  Indeed  it  is  so  among  all 
the  pond  people,  and  that  is  one  reason 
why  they  care  so  much  about  being  good- 
looking.  It  is  very  hard  for  a  young 
Mink  to  have  the  one  he  loves  choose 
somebody  else,  just  because  the  other  fel- 
low has  the  bushiest  tail,  or  the  longest 
fur,  or  the  thickest  pads  on  his  feet. 

"  Now,"  said   the    Bachelor,    "  we  will 


196          Among  the  Pond  People 

talk  about  luck.  We  will  go  to  a  place 
where  nobody  can  hear  what  we  say." 
They  found  such  a  place  and  lay  down. 
The  Bachelor  rolled  over  three  times  and 
smoothed  his  fur ;  he  was  still  so  tired 
from  being  in  the  trap.  Then  he  looked 
at  the  young  Mink  very  sharply.  "  So 
you  want  my  tail  ?  "  said  he. 

"  You  said  you  would  give  me  your 
luck,"  answered  Big  Brother,  "  and  every- 
body knows  that  your  luck  is  in  your  tail." 

The  Bachelor  smiled.  "  What  will  you 
do  with  the  tail  you  have  ?  "  said  he. 

"  I  don't  know,"  answered  Big  Brother. 

"  You  would  n't  want  to  wear  two  ?  " 
asked  the  Bachelor. 

"  Oh,  no,"  answered  Big  Brother.  "  How 
that  would  look  !  " 

"  Well,  how  will  you  put  my  tail  in 
place  of  yours  ?  "  asked  the  Bachelor. 

"  I  don't  know,"  answered  the  young 
Mink,  "  but  you  are  so  wise  that  I  thought 
you  might  know  some  way."  He  began 


The  Lucky  Mink  197 

to  feel  discouraged,  and  to  think  that  the 
Bachelor's  offer  did  n't  mean  very  much 
after  all. 

"  Don't  you  think  ?  "  said  the  Bachelor 
slowly,  "  don't  you  think  that,  if  you  could 
have  my  luck,  you  could  get  along  pretty 
well  with  your  own  tail  ?" 

"Why,  yes,"  said  the  young  Mink, 
who  had  begun  to  fear  he  was  not  going 
to  get  anything.  "  Yes,  but  how  could 
that  be  ?  " 

The  Bachelor  smiled  again.  "  I  always 
tell  people,"  said  he,  "  that  my  luck  is  not 
in  my  tail,  and  they  never  believe  it.  I 
will  tell  you  the  secret  of  my  luck,  and 
you  can  have  luck  like  it,  if  you  really  care 
enough."  He  looked  all  around  to  make 
sure  that  nobody  was  near,  and  he  listened 
very  carefully  with  the  two  little  round 
ears  that  were  almost  hidden  in  his  head- 
fur.  Then  he  whispered  to  Big  Brother, 
"  This  is  the  secret :  always  do  everything 
a  little  better  than  anybody  else  can" 


198          Among  the  Pond  People 

"  Is  that  all  ?"  asked  the  young  Mink. 

"  That  is  enough,"  answered  the  Bache- 
lor. "  Keep  trying  and  trying  and  try- 
ing, until  you  can  dive  deeper,  stay  under 
water  longer,  run  faster,  and  smell  farther 
than  other  Minks.  Then  you  will  have 
good  luck  when  theirs  is  poor.  You  will 
have  plenty  to  eat  when  they  are  hungry. 
You  can  beat  in  every  fight.  You  can 
have  sleek,  shining  fur  when  theirs  is  dull. 
Luck  is  not  a  matter  of  white-tipped 
tails." 

The  more  the  young  Mink  thought 
about  it,  the  happier  he  became.  "  I 
don't  see  that  I  am  to  have  your  luck 
after  all,"  said  he.  "  When  I  have  learned 
to  do  everything  in  the  very  best  way,  it 
will  be  luck  of  my  own." 

"  Of  course,"  answered  the  Bachelor. 
"  Then  it  is  a  kind  of  luck  that  cannot  be 
lost.  If  I  carried  mine  in  the  tip  of  my 
tail,  somebody  might  bite  it  off  and  leave 
me  unlucky." 


The  Lucky  Mink 


199 


Big  Brother  kept  the  secret,  and  worked 
until  he  had  learned  to  be  as  lucky  as  the 
Bachelor.  Then  he  married  the  person 
he  wanted,  and  she  was  very,  very  hand- 
some. It  is  said  that  one  of  their  sons 
has  a  white-tipped  tail,  but  that  may  not 
be  so. 


THE    PLAYFUL    MUSKRATS 


/^vNE  warm  day  in  winter,  when  some 
of  the  pussy-willows  made  a  mistake 
and  began  to  grow  because  they  thought 
spring  had  come,  a  party  of  Muskrats 
were  visiting  in  the  marsh  beside  the 
pond.  All  around  them  were  their  winter 
houses,  built  of  mud  and  coarse  grasses. 
These  homes  looked  like  heaps  of  dried 
rushes,  unless  one  went  close  to  them. 
If  one  did  that,  he  could  plainly  see  what 
they  were  ;  and  if  one  happened  to  be  a 
Muskrat,  and  could  dive  and  go  into  them 
through  their  watery  doorways,  he  would 
find  under  the  queer  roof  of  each,  a  warm, 
dry  room  in  which  to  pass  the  cold  days. 

"  Fine  weather  !  "    said  every  Muskrat 
to  his  neighbor.      "  Could  n't  sleep  all  of 

200 


The  Playful  Muskrats  201 

such  a  day  as  this."  They  spoke  in  that 
way,  you  know,  because  they  usually  sleep 
in  the  daytime  and  are  awake  at  night. 

"  We  wish  it  would  always  be  warm 
weather,"  said  the  young  Muskrats. 
"  What  fs  the  use  of  winter  ?  " 

"  Hard  to  tell,"  answered  one  Muskrat, 
who  had  lived  in  the  marsh  longer  than 
the  rest.  "  Hard  to  tell :  I  know  it  always 
gives  me  a  good  appetite,  though." 
Then  all  the  Muskrats  laughed.  They 
were  a  jolly,  good-natured  company,  and 
easy  to  get  along  with.  The  other  pond 
people  liked  them  much  better  than  they 
did  their  neighbors,  the  Minks.  The 
Wild  Ducks  who  nested  in  the  sedges, 
were  quite  willing  that  the  young  Musk- 
rats  should  play  with  their  children,  and 
the  Mud  Hens  were  not  afraid  of  them. 
Mud  Hens  cannot  bear  Minks.  They 
say  that  when  a  Mud  Chicken  is  missing 
from  the  nest,  there  is  quite  sure  to  be  a 
Mink  somewhere  near  with  a  full  stomach 


2O2          Among  the  Pond  People 

and  down  around  the  corners  of  his 
mouth. 

Perhaps  if  the  Wild  Ducks  and  the 
Mud  Hens  were  raising  their  families  in 
the  winter  time  it  might  be  different,  for 
then  the  Muskrats  get  hungry  enough  to 
eat  almost  anything.  In  spring  and  sum- 
mer, when  they  can  find  fresh  grasses  and 
young  rushes,  or  a  few  parsnips,  carrots, 
and  turnips  from  the  farmers'  fields,  other 
animals  are  quite  safe.  In  the  winter 
they  live  mostly  on  roots. 

"  Fine  day  ! "  screamed  the  Gulls,  as 
they  swept  through  the  air.  "  Pity  the 
Frogs  don't  come  out  to  enjoy  it  !  " 

"  Yes,  great  pity,"  chuckled  the  old 
Muskrat.  "  How  glad  you  would  be  to 
see  them  !  "  He  smiled  all  around  his 
little  mouth  and  showed  his  gnawing 
teeth.  He  knew  that  the  Frogs  were 
better  off  asleep  in  the  mud  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  pond,  than  they  would  be  sit- 
ting in  the  sunshine  with  a  few  hungry 


The  Playful  Muskrats  203 

Gulls  above  them.  The  Turtles  were 
sleeping  all  winter,  too,  in  the  banks  of 
the  pond.  The  Eels  were  lying  at  the 
bottom,  stupid  and  drowsy,  and  some- 
where the  Water-Adders  were  hidden 
away,  dreaming  of  spring.  Of  all  the 
birds  who  lived  by  the  water,  only  the 
Gulls  were  there,  and  they  were  not 
popular.  It  is  true  that  they  helped  keep 
the  pond  sweet  and  clean,  and  picked 
up  and  carried  away  many  things  which 
made  the  shore  untidy,  still,  they  were 
rude,  and  talked  too  loudly,  and  wore 
their  feathers  in  such  a  way  that  they 
looked  like  fine  large  birds,  when  really 
they  were  lean  and  skinny  and  small. 
The  other  pond  people  said  that  was  just 
like  them,  always  pretending  to  be  more 
than  they  really  were. 

Fifteen  young  Muskrats,  all  brothers 
and  sisters,  and  all  born  the  summer  be- 
fore, started  off  to  look  at  the  old  home 
where  they  were  children  together.  That 


204          Among  the  Pond  People 

is  to  say,  they  were  not  all  there  at  oncet 
but  there  were  five  born  early  in  the 
season  ;  and  when  they  were  old  enough 
to  look  out  for  themselves,  five  more 
came  to  live  in  the  old  nest  ;  and  when 
these  were  old  enough  to  leave  the  nest, 
another  five  were  born. 

It  does  n't  mean  so  much  to  Muskrats 
to  be  brothers  and  sisters  as  it  does  to 
some  people,  still  they  remembered  that 
they  were  related,  and  they  played  more 
with  each  other  than  with  those  young 
Muskrats  who  were  only  their  cousins  or 
friends.  Their  mother  was  very  proud 
of  them,  and  loved  to  watch  them  run- 
ning around  on  their  short  legs,  and  to 
hear  them  slap  their  long,  scaly  tails  on 
the  water  when  they  dove.  They  had 
short,  downy  fur,  almost  black  on  the 
back,  soft  gray  underneath,  and  a  reddish 
brown  everywhere  else.  There  was  very 
little  fur  on  their  tails  or  on  their  feet,  and 
those  parts  were  black. 


The  Playful  Muskrats  205 

These  fifteen  children  had  been  fairly 
well  brought  up,  but  you  can  see  that 
their  mother  had  many  cares  ;  so  it  is  not 
strange  if  they  sometimes  behaved  badly. 
In  some  other  families,  where  there  were 
only  nine  or  ten  babies  all  the  season,  they 
had  been  brought  up  more  strictly.  Like 
all  young  Muskrats,  they  were  full  of  fun, 
and  there  were  few  pleasanter  sights  than 
to  see  them  frolicking  on  a  warm  moon- 
light evening,  when  they  looked  like 
brown  balls  rolling  and  bounding  around 
on  the  shore  or  plunging  into  the  water. 
If  they  had  all  been  exactly  the  same  age, 
it  would  have  been  even  pleasanter,  for 
the  oldest  five  would  put  on  airs  and 
call  the  others  "  the  children  " ;  and  the 
next  five  would  call  the  youngest  five 
"  babies  "  ;  although  they  were  all  well 
grown.  There  was  no  chance  for  the 
youngest  five  to  call  other  Muskrats 
"  babies,"  so  when  they  were  warm  and 
well  fed  and  good-natured  they  laughed 


2o6          Among  the  Pond  People 

and  said,  "  Who  cares  ? "  When  they 
were  cold  and  hungry,  they  slapped  their 
tails  on  the  ground  or  on  the  water  and 
said,  "  Don't  you  think  you  're  smart !  " 

When  they  got  to  talking  so  and  their 
mother  heard  it,  she  would  say,  "  Now, 
children  !  "  in  such  a  way  that  they  had 
to  stop.  Their  father  sometimes  slapped 
them  with  his  tail.  Teasing  is  not  so 
very  bad,  you  know,  although  it  is  dread- 
fully silly,  but  when  people  begin  by  teas- 
ing they  sometimes  get  to  saying  things 
in  earnest  —  even  really  hateful,  mean 
thing's.  And  that  was  what  made  the 

o 

Muskrat  father  and  mother  stop  it  when- 
ever they  could. 

Now  the  whole  fifteen  crowded  around 
the  old  summer  home,  and  some  of  them 
went  in  one  way,  and  some  of  them  went 
in  another,  for  every  Muskrat's  summer 
house  has  several  burrows  leading  to  it. 
When  they  reached  the  old  nest  at  the 
end,  all  of  them  tried  to  get  in  at  once, 


The  Playful  Muskrats  207 

and  they  pushed  each  other  around  with 
their  broad  little  heads,  scrambled  and 
clutched  and  held  on  with  their  strong 
little  feet.  Five  of  them  said,  "  It 's  our 
turn  first.  We  're  the  oldest."  And  five 
more  said,  "  Well,  it 's  our  turn  next  any- 
way, 'cause  we're  next  oldest."  The  oth- 
ers said,  "  You  might  give  up  to  us, 
because  we  're  the  youngest." 

They  pushed  and  scrambled  some 
more,  and  one  of  the  youngest  children 
said  to  one  of  the  oldest,  "  Well,  I 
don't  care.  I  'm  just  as  big  as  you  are  " 
(which  was  so).  And  the  older  one  an- 
swered back,  "  Well,  you  're  not  so  good- 
looking  "  (which  was  also  true). 

Then  part  of  the  brothers  and  sisters 
took  sides  with  one,  and  part  took  sides 
with  the  other.  What  had  been  a  lovely 
frolic  became  an  unpleasant,  disgraceful 
quarrel,  and  they  said  such  things  as 
these : 

" '  Fore  I  'd  make  such  a  fuss  !  " 


208          Among  the  Pond  People 

"Who's  making  any  more  fuss  than 
you  are,  I  'd  like  to  know  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes.  You  're  big  enough,  but 
you  're  just  as  homely  as  you  can  be.  So 
there  !  " 

"  Quit  poking  me  !  " 

"  You  slapped  your  tail  on  my  back ! " 

"  I  'm  going  to  tell  on  you  fellows  ! " 

" 1  dare  you  to  ! " 

"  Won't  you  catch  it  though  !  " 

And  many  more  things  which  were 
even  worse.  Think  of  it.  Fifteen  young 
Muskrats  who  really  loved  each  other, 
talking  like  that  because  they  could  n't 
decide  whether  the  oldest  or  the  youngest 
or  the  half-way-between  brothers  and 
sisters  should  go  first  into  the  old  nest. 
And  it  did  n't  matter  a  bit  who  was  oldest 
or  who  was  youngest,  and  it  never  would 
have  happened  had  it  not  been  for  their 
dreadful  habit  of  teasing. 

Just  as  they  had  become  very  hot  and 
angry,  they  heard  their  mother's  voice 


The  Playful  Muskrats  209 

say,  "  Now,  children  ! "  but  they  were  too 
much  excited  to  mind,  and  they  did  not 
stop  until  their  father  came  and  slapped 
them  with  his  tail.  Then  they  kept  still 
and  listened  to  their  mother.  She  told 
them  that  they  should  leave  the  place  at 
once,  and  not  one  of  them  should  even  set 
foot  in  the  old  nest.  "  Suppose  somebody 
had  gotten  hurt,"  she  said.  This  made 
the  young  Muskrats  look  very  sober,  for 
they  knew  that  the  Muskrat  who  is  hurt 
in  winter  never  gets  well. 

After  she  had  let  them  think  about  this 
for  a  while,  she  said,  "  I  shall  punish  you 
all  for  this."  Then  there  was  no  quarrel 
among  her  children  to  see  who  should 
have  the  first  turn — not  at  all. 

One  young  Muskrat  said,  "  Are  n't  you 
going  to  let  us  play  any  more  ? " 

"Yes,"  said  she.  "  I  shall  let  you  play 
all  the  rest  of  the  day,  but  I  shall  choose 
the  games.  The  oldest  five  will  play 
4  Mud  Turtles  in  winter,'  the  next  five 


M 


2io          Among  the  Pond  People 

will  play  *  Frogs  in  winter/  and  the 
youngest  five  will  play  *  Snakes  in  winter.' 
The  way  to  play  these  games  is  to  lie  per- 
fectly still  in  some  dark  place  and  not  say 
a  word." 

The  young  Muskrats  looked  at  each 
other  sorrowfully.  They  thought  it 
sounded  very  much  the  same  as  being 
sent  to  bed  for  being  naughty.  They 
did  not  dare  say  anything,  for  they 
knew  that,  although  their  mother  was 
gentle,  as  Muskrats  are  most  of  the 
time,  she  could  be  very  severe.  So  they 
went  away  quietly  to  play  what  she  had 
told  them  they  must.  But  it  was  not 
much  fun  to  play  those  games  when  all 
the  others  were  having  a  fine  time  in  the 
sunshine. 

There  were  nine  of  the  young  Musk- 
rats  who  did  not  tease  any  after  that. 
Even  the  other  six  were  more  careful. 


14  DAY  USE 

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